Transmission method using parity packets, transmitter and repeater

ABSTRACT

Provided is a transmission method executed by a transmitting apparatus to transmit a content to a plurality of terminals. The content having transmission count information indicating a number of times the content is to be transmitted by the transmitting apparatus. The transmission method including a first transmission step of generating and transmitting a first transmission signal which transfers at least a first portion of a plurality of data packets including a plurality of content packets, storing data of the content therein, and a plurality of parity packets, generated from the content packets, and a second transmission step of, when the transmission count information of the content indicates a plurality of times, generating a second transmission signal including at least a second portion of the plurality of data packets, and transmitting the second transmission signal during a period which differs from a period during which the first transmission signal is transmitted.

The present application is a Continuation of application Ser. No.14/079,988, filed Nov. 14, 2013. The entire disclosure of theabove-identified application, including the specification, drawings andclaims are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-248021 filed onOct. 28, 2009 including specification, drawings claims and abstract, andthe disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-35763 filed onFeb. 22, 2010 including specification, drawings claims and abstract areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

The present invention relates to a transmission method using paritypackets, a transmitter and a repeater. For example, each of thetransmission method, the transmitter and the repeater realizesimprovement in reception quality at a time of retransmission byperforming coding with use of LDPC Codes (Low Density Parity CheckCodes) to generate the parity packets, and using the parity packets asdata to be transmitted (retransmission data).

BACKGROUND ART

One of methods used by a transmitter to reliably transmit information toa receiver is a method of performing retransmission at a physical layer.The method of performing retransmission at the physical layer istechnology that, even when the receiver cannot obtain information thathas been transmitted, reliably provides the information to the receiverby transmitting some data that is based on the information again. Whenthe number of retransmissions increases, data transmission efficiencydecreases. Therefore, it is important to realize a retransmission methodthat can transmit information to the receiver while keeping the numberof retransmissions small. Note that the following describes generalretransmission. When the receiver cannot properly decode someinformation (or packets) received from the transmitter, the transmittertransmits data corresponding to the information (or packets) again inresponse to a retransmission request made by the receiver. However, thetransmitter may transmit, to the receiver, data that is different fromthe initially transmitted information (or packets), in response to theretransmission request as long as the transmitted information (orpackets) can be restored with use of the data. In the presentDescription, the retransmission includes a case where the transmittertransmits, in response to the retransmission request, data that isdifferent data from information (or packets) initially transmitted tothe receiver and is data with which the initially transmittedinformation (or packets) can be restored.

FIG. 27 shows an exemplary retransmission method recited in Non PatentLiterature 1. In FIG. 27, each Xi indicates information at a time pointi, and each Pi indicates a parity at the time point i. When a codingrate is ½, a transmit sequence is composed of the information pieces Xiand the parities Pi. When the coding rate is ⅔, the transmit sequence iscomposed of bits excluding P2, X3, P6, X7, . . . , P2k+4, X3k+4, . . .(puncture), for example.

The transmitter initially transmits, to the receiver, the transmitsequence that is composed according to a method using the puncture atthe coding rate of ⅔. Then, upon receiving a request from the receiverfor retransmission, the transmitter transmits, to the receiver, bitsthat have not been initially transmitted (i.e. P2, X3, P6, X7, . . . ,P2k+4, X3k+4, . . . ).

The receiver performs decoding at the coding rate of ½, with use of areceived log likelihood ratio of the initially transmitted bits and areception likelihood ratio of the retransmitted bits. In this case, thecoding rate is lower at the time of the decoding for the retransmissionthan at the time of the initial decoding. Therefore, a packet error isless likely to occur at the time of retransmission.

PRIOR ART REFERENCES Non Patent Literature

-   Non Patent Literature 1: J. Hagenauer, “Rate-compatible punctured    convolutional codes (RCPC codes) and their applications”, IEEE    Transaction on Communications, vol. 36, No. 4, April 1988-   Non Patent Literature 2: D. Chase, “Code combining-A    maximum-likelihood decoding approach for combining an arbitrary    number of noisy packet”, IEEE Transaction on Communications, vol.    33, No. 5, May 1985.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

However, according to the coding rate for the puncture, the number ofcodes having high error correcting ability is limited. Therefore, it isdifficult to realize flexible design. Also, the above-mentionedretransmission method of Non Patent Literature 1 can be adopted in aunicast communication mode. However, it is effective, in many cases, toadopt another retransmission method that is different from theabove-mentioned retransmission method in order to reliably reduce thepossibility of packet error occurrence when a plurality of receiversmake retransmission requests in a multicast communication mode.

In the method of performing retransmission at the physical layer, it isdifficult to set flexible retransmission data. In the multicastcommunication mode, in particular, it is desirable to adopt aretransmission method that can reliably reduce a packet error rate bymore flexibly setting retransmission data in accordance with the numberof receivers that have made the retransmission requests.

Also, few suggestions are made for realizing a multicast relay methodwith use of a repeater when packets for the multicast (broadcast andMBMS (Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service)) are transmitted toterminals through the repeater. Therefore, a multicast retransmissionmethod is desired that is used in the repeater and has fine datatransfer efficiency.

In view of the above-described problems, the present invention has anaim to provide a transmitter and a transmission method using paritypackets. Here, the transmission method and the transmitter make itpossible to generate flexible retransmission data by generating theretransmission data in units of packets, and effectively reduce thepacket error rate by the retransmission. The present invention also hasan aim to provide a multicast retransmission method that has fine datatransfer efficiency and is used in a repeater and a repeater for themulticast retransmission.

Solution to Problems

In order to achieve the above aim, a transmission method of the presentinvention is a transmission method of performing transmission with useof parity packets, the transmission method comprising: a first errordetection code insertion step of inserting, at a certain layer, errordetection codes into information packets on a one-to-one basis to obtainfirst information packets, the certain layer being a layer at whichsignal processing is performed earlier than at a first layer; a paritypacket generation step of generating, at the certain layer, paritypackets by coding the information packets; a second error detection codeinsertion step of inserting, at the certain layer, error detection codesinto the parity packets on a one-to-one basis to obtain first paritypackets; a first layer coding step of coding, at the first layer, thefirst information packets and the first parity packets to obtain secondinformation packets and second parity packets, respectively, atransmission step of initially transmitting the second informationpackets; and a parity packet transmission step of transmitting thesecond parity packets to each of one or more receivers with reference tofeedback information obtained from the receiver.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the above-described transmission method using the paritypackets, the parity packets are generated with use of the informationpackets at the layer at which signal processing is performed earlierthan at the first layer, and the parity packets are retransmitted. Thus,flexible retransmission data can be generated. The packet error rate canbe effectively reduced by retransmitting the parity packets.

In order to achieve the above aim, a repeater of the present inventionreceives a first packet group, and transmits the first packet group to aterminal device, the first packet group including a plurality ofinformation packets and parity packets, the parity packets beinggenerated by coding the information packets at a packet level, therepeater comprising: a first reception unit operable to receive thefirst packet group; a first transmission unit operable to transmit, tothe terminal device, some packets of the received first packet group asa second packet group; a second reception unit operable to receivefeedback information from the terminal device that has received thesecond packet group; and a second transmission unit operable, when thesecond reception unit receives the feedback information from theterminal device, to transmit, to the terminal device, one or morepackets of the first packet group other than the packets included in thesecond packet group, as a third packet group.

Also, a communication method of the present invention is used in arepeater that receives a first packet group, and transmits the firstpacket group to a terminal device, the first packet group including aplurality of information packets and parity packets, the parity packetsbeing generated by coding the information packets at a packet level, thecommunication method comprising: a first reception step of receiving thefirst packet group; a first transmission step of transmitting, to theterminal device, some packets of the received first packet group as asecond packet group; a second reception step of receiving feedbackinformation from the terminal device that has received the second packetgroup; and a second transmission step of, when the feedback informationis received from the terminal device in the second reception step,transmitting, to the terminal device, one or more packets of the firstpacket group other than the packets included in the second packet group,as a third packet group.

According to the above-described repeater that uses the parity packets,the parity packets are generated with use of the information packets atthe layer at which signal processing is performed earlier than at thefirst layer, and the parity packets are retransmitted. Thus, flexibleretransmission data can be generated, and the packet error rate can beeffectively reduced by retransmitting the parity packets. Also, it ispossible to provide a multicast retransmission method that has fine datatransfer efficiency and is used in the repeater.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of a communication apparatus on atransmitting side (transmitter) in a first embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of a packet generation unit and a packetdata coding unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows an example of transmission operations of the transmitter inFIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of a communication apparatus on areceiving side (receiver) with which the transmitter in FIG. 1communicates;

FIG. 5 is a structural diagram of a packet decoding unit shown in FIG.4;

FIG. 6A shows an example of reception operations of the receiver in FIG.4, and FIG. 6B shows another example of the reception operations of thereceiver in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 shows an example of communication between the transmitter shownin FIG. 1 and the receiver shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a structural diagram of the packet generation unit and thepacket data coding unit that are included in a transmitter of a secondembodiment;

FIG. 9 shows an example of how a transmission method determination unitincluded in the transmitter of the second embodiment determines thenumber of parity packets to be retransmitted;

FIG. 10 shows an example of communication between the transmitter andthe receiver in the second embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a structural diagram of a transmission method determinationunit included in a transmitter of a third embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing a multicast communication;

FIG. 13 shows an example of communication between the transmitter andthe receiver in the third embodiment;

FIG. 14 shows a concrete example of how the transmission methoddetermination unit shown in FIG. 11 determines the number of paritypackets to be retransmitted;

FIG. 15 is a structural diagram of a physical layer error correctioncoding unit included in a transmitter of a fourth embodiment;

FIG. 16 is a structural diagram of a receiver of the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 17 shows an example of communication between the transmitter andthe receiver in the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 18 is a structural diagram of a physical layer error correctioncoding unit included in a transmitter of a fifth embodiment;

FIG. 19 shows an example of communication between the transmitter andthe receiver in the fifth embodiment;

FIG. 20 shows an example of a frame structure when a transmitter of asixth embodiment performs retransmission;

FIG. 21 is a structural diagram of a packet generation unit and a packetdata coding unit that are included in a transmitter of a seventhembodiment;

FIG. 22 shows an example of a frame structure when the transmitter ofthe seventh embodiment performs retransmission;

FIG. 23 is a structural diagram of a packet generation unit and a packetdata coding unit that are included in a transmitter of an eighthembodiment;

FIG. 24 shows an example of a frame structure when the transmitter ofthe eighth embodiment performs retransmission;

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing an example of how to select aretransmission method in a ninth embodiment;

FIG. 26 shows an example of retransmission in the multicastcommunication mode;

FIG. 27 shows an example of conventional retransmission methods;

FIG. 28 shows an example of coding methods at a layer at which signalprocessing is performed earlier than at the physical layer;

FIG. 29 shows another example of coding methods at a layer at whichsignal processing is performed earlier than at the physical layer;

FIG. 30 shows a structure of an n-th parity group;

FIG. 31 is a schematic diagram of the multicast communication in asystem including a base station, repeaters and terminals in an eleventhembodiment;

FIG. 32 shows a structure of a packet group in the base station when thebase station transmits the packet group to the terminal through therepeater in the eleventh embodiment;

FIG. 33 shows an example of communication among the repeaters and theterminals in the eleventh embodiment;

FIG. 34 is a structural diagram of a packet data coding unit of theeleventh embodiment;

FIG. 35 is a structural diagram of a packet data coding unit of theeleventh embodiment;

FIG. 36 shows an example of communication among the base station, therepeater and the terminals in the eleventh embodiment;

FIG. 37 is a structural diagram of the repeater of the eleventhembodiment;

FIG. 38 shows another example (part II) of communication among the basestation, the repeater and the terminals in the eleventh embodiment;

FIG. 39 is another structural diagram (part II) of the repeater of theeleventh embodiment;

FIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and 40D show an example of a structure of packets tobe transmitted by a base station, repeaters and terminals in a twelfthembodiment;

FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D show another example (part II) of astructure of packets to be transmitted by the base station, therepeaters and the terminals in the twelfth embodiment;

FIG. 42 shows a conceptual diagram showing an example of signalprocessing timing in the repeater of the eleventh embodiment;

FIG. 43 shows a conceptual diagram showing an example of signalprocessing timing in the repeater of the twelfth embodiment;

FIG. 44 shows an example of relay operations of the repeater;

FIG. 45 is a structural diagram of the repeater that executes the relayoperations shown in FIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and 40D;

FIG. 46 is a structural diagram of the repeater that executes relayoperation shown in FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D;

FIGS. 47A, 47B, 47C and 47D show another example (part III) of astructure of packets to be transmitted by the base station, the repeaterand the terminal of the twelfth embodiment;

FIGS. 48A, 48B, 48C and 48D show another example (part IV) of astructure of packets to be transmitted by the base station, the repeaterand the terminal of the twelfth embodiment;

FIGS. 49A and 49B show an example of a frame structure of a signaltransmitted by a base station of a thirteenth embodiment;

FIG. 50 is a conceptual diagram showing switching between transmissionmethods in the repeater;

FIG. 51 shows an example of selection operations of the transmissionmethod in the repeater;

FIG. 52 is a structural diagram showing an example of part of a functionof the repeater;

FIGS. 53A and 53B show changes in a state of the network shown in afourteenth embodiment;

FIG. 54 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of timing at whichthe repeater transmits packets in accordance with a change in a state ofthe network;

FIG. 55 is a structural diagram of the repeater of the fourteenthembodiment;

FIG. 56 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of timing at whichthe base station of the fourteenth embodiment transmits packets andtiming at which the repeater of the fourteenth embodiment transmits thepackets;

FIG. 57 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of timing at whichthe base station of the fourteenth embodiment transmits packets aplurality of times and an example of timing at which the repeater of thefourteenth embodiment transmits the packets a plurality of times;

FIG. 58 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of timing at whichthe base station of a fifteenth embodiment transmits packets and timingat which the repeater of the fifteenth embodiment transmits the packets;and

FIG. 59 shows a method of generating a packet group a+b shown in FIG.58.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

One aspect of the present invention is a first transmission method ofperforming transmission with use of parity packets, the transmissionmethod comprising: a first error detection code insertion step ofinserting, at a certain layer, error detection codes into informationpackets on a one-to-one basis to obtain first information packets, thecertain layer being a layer at which signal processing is performedearlier than at a first layer; a parity packet generation step ofgenerating, at the certain layer, parity packets by coding theinformation packets; a second error detection code insertion step ofinserting, at the certain layer, error detection codes into the paritypackets on a one-to-one basis to obtain first parity packets; a firstlayer coding step of coding, at the first layer, the first informationpackets and the first parity packets to obtain second informationpackets and second parity packets, respectively, a transmission step ofinitially transmitting the second information packets; and a paritypacket transmission step of transmitting the second parity packets toeach of one or more receivers with reference to feedback informationobtained from the receiver

One aspect of the present invention is a first transmitter thatcomprises a first error detection code insertion unit operable toinsert, at a certain layer, error detection codes into informationpackets on a one-to-one basis to obtain first information packets, thecertain layer being a layer at which signal processing is performedearlier than at a first layer; a parity packet generation unit operableto generate, at the certain layer, parity packets by coding theinformation packets; a second error detection code insertion unitoperable to insert, at the certain layer, error detection codes into theparity packets on a one-to-one basis to obtain first parity packets; afirst layer coding unit operable to code, at the first layer, the firstinformation packets and the first parity packets to obtain secondinformation packets and second parity packets, respectively, atransmission unit operable to initially transmit the second informationpackets; and a parity packet transmission unit operable to transmit thesecond parity packets to each of one or more receivers with reference tofeedback information obtained from the receiver.

According to the above, the parity packets are generated with use of theinformation packets at the layer at which signal processing is performedearlier than at the first layer, and the parity packets areretransmitted. Thus, flexible retransmission data can be generated. Thepacket error rate can be effectively reduced by retransmitting theparity packets.

One aspect of the present invention which is a second transmissionmethod that performs transmission with use of parity packets accordingto the first transmission method further comprises a determination stepof determining, based on numbers of erroneous information packets in theone or more receivers, a coding rate of codes that are to be used forcoding the information packets in the parity packet generation step,wherein in the parity packet generation step, the information packetsare coded with use of the determined coding rate

According to the above, the coding rate of codes in the parity packetgeneration step can be changed based on the number of erroneousinformation packets in each of one or more receivers. Therefore, it ispossible to reduce the amount of retransmission data. Thus, it ispossible to realize both the improvement of the data transmissionefficiency and the reduction of the packet error rate at the time ofretransmission.

One aspect of the present invention which is a third transmission methodthat performs transmission with use of parity packets according to thefirst transmission method further comprises a first layer retransmissionstep of performing, at the first layer, retransmission based onerroneous information packets in each of the one or more receivers, withreference to the feedback information obtained from the receiver.

One aspect of the present invention which is a second transmitteraccording to the first transmitter further comprises a first layerretransmission unit operable to perform, at the first layer,retransmission based on erroneous information packets in each of the oneor more receivers, with reference to the feedback information obtainedfrom the receiver.

According to the above, the retransmission of the parity packets isperformed in the first layer. Therefore, the number of retransmissionscan be reduced.

One aspect of the present invention which is a fourth transmissionmethod that performs transmission with use of parity packets accordingto the third transmission method further comprises a selection step ofselecting, as a retransmission method, with reference to the feedbackinformation obtained from each of the one or more receivers, one of (i)the transmission method of claim 1, (ii) a first layer retransmissionmethod of performing, at the first layer, retransmission based onerroneous information packets in the receiver, and (iii) a combinationof the transmission method of claim 1 and the first layer retransmissionmethod.

One aspect of the present invention which is a third transmitteraccording to the first transmitter further comprises a selection unitoperable to select, as a retransmission method, with reference to thefeedback information obtained from each of the one or more receivers,one of (i) the transmission method of claim 1, (ii) a first layerretransmission method of performing, at the first layer, retransmissionbased on erroneous information packets in the receiver, and (iii) acombination of the transmission method of claim 1 and the first layerretransmission method.

According to the above, it is possible to realize improvement of thedata reception quality and improvement of the data transfer efficiency.

According to one aspect of the present invention which is a fifthtransmission method that performs transmission with use of paritypackets according to the first transmission method, the first layer is aphysical layer.

One aspect of the present invention is a first repeater that receives afirst packet group, and transmits the first packet group to a terminaldevice, the first packet group including a plurality of informationpackets and parity packets, the parity packets being generated by codingthe information packets at a packet level, the repeater comprising: afirst reception unit operable to receive the first packet group; a firsttransmission unit operable to transmit, to the terminal device, somepackets of the received first packet group as a second packet group; asecond reception unit operable to receive feedback information from theterminal device that has received the second packet group; and a secondtransmission unit operable, when the second reception unit receives thefeedback information from the terminal device, to transmit, to theterminal device, one or more packets of the first packet group otherthan the packets included in the second packet group, as a third packetgroup.

One aspect of the present invention is a first communication method usedin a repeater that receives a first packet group, and transmits thefirst packet group to a terminal device, the first packet groupincluding a plurality of information packets and parity packets, theparity packets being generated by coding the information packets at apacket level, the communication method comprising: a first receptionstep of receiving the first packet group; a first transmission step oftransmitting, to the terminal device, some packets of the received firstpacket group as a second packet group; a second reception step ofreceiving feedback information from the terminal device that hasreceived the second packet group; and a second transmission step of,when the feedback information is received from the terminal device inthe second reception step, transmitting, to the terminal device, one ormore packets of the first packet group other than the packets includedin the second packet group, as a third packet group.

According to the above, the repeater transmits, from among the packetgroups received by the terminal device, the first packet group first.When receiving the feedback information from the terminal device, therepeater transmits, as the third packet group, one or more packets ofthe first packet group other than the packets included in the secondpacket group. According to the above-stated structure, setting is madein the repeater such that the amount of information to be initiallytransmitted to the terminal device is smaller than the amount of thereceived packet group. In this way, the data transfer efficiency can beenhanced.

According to one aspect of the present invention which is a secondrepeater according to the first repeater, the first transmission unittransmits, as the second packet group, the information packets includedin the first packet group, and the second transmission unit transmits,as the third packet group, some or all of the parity packets included inthe first packet group.

According to one aspect of the present invention which is a secondcommunication method of the first communication method, the firsttransmission step transmits, as the second packet group, the informationpackets included in the first packet group, and the second transmissionstep transmits, as the third packet group, some or all of the paritypackets included in the first packet group.

According to the above, the repeater transmits the information packetsfirst. In this way, processing in the terminal device can be reducedcompared to a case where the parity packets are transmitted first. Thisis because when the information packets are transmitted first, thedecoding at a packet level does not have to be executed while thedecoding at a packet level needs to be executed when the parity packetsare transmitted first.

According to one aspect of the present invention which is a thirdrepeater according to the first repeater, the first transmission unittransmits, as the second packet group, one or more packets of the firstpacket group that have no error before decoding at a packet level isperformed.

According to one aspect of the present invention which is a thirdcommunication method according to the first communication method, thefirst transmission step transmits, as the second packet group, one ormore packets of the first packet group that have no error beforedecoding at a packet level is performed.

According to the above, the packets that have been received without anerror before the decoding at a packet level (e.g. when the decoding atthe physical layer is performed) is transmitted to the terminal devicefirst. The erroneous packets can be restored by the decoding at a packetlevel without wasting time, after such transmission is performed andbefore the feedback information for the transmission is transmitted.

According to one aspect of the present invention which is a fourthrepeater according to the third repeater, the first transmission unittransmits, as the second packet group, a number of packets that areequal to or greater than a predetermined number of packets, thepredetermined number of packets being enough to restore, when receivedby the external terminal without an error and decoded at a packet level,original information of the information packets.

According to one aspect of the present invention which is a fourthcommunication method according to the third communication method, thefirst transmission step transmits, as the second packet group, a numberof packets that are equal to or greater than a predetermined number ofpackets, the predetermined number of packets being enough to restore,when received by the external terminal without an error and decoded at apacket level, original information of the information packets.

According to the above, the terminal device receives the transmissiondata initially transmitted by the repeater. In this way, it is possibleto increase the possibility of restoring information on which thetransmission data is based, in the terminal device.

According to one aspect of the present invention that is a fifthrepeater according to one of the third and fourth repeaters, the secondtransmission unit transmits, as the third packet group, a packet groupincluding the one or more packets of the first packet group other thanthe packets included in the second packet group, the one or more packetsbeing generated based on information restored by performing decoding ata packet level.

According to one aspect of the present invention which is a fifthtransmission method according to the third and fourth transmissionmethods, the second transmission step transmits, as the third packetgroup, a packet group including the one or more packets of the firstpacket group other than the packets included in the second packet group,the one or more packets being generated based on information restored byperforming decoding at a packet level.

One aspect of the present invention is a coder that generates thirdpackets by: obtaining first packets and second packets, the first andsecond packets being respectively obtained by coding first informationand second information at a packet level; extracting the firstinformation and the second information respectively from the firstpackets and the second packets; and coding the first information and thesecond information at a packet level

One aspect of the present invention is a coding method that generatesthird packets by: obtaining first packets and second packets, the firstand second packets being respectively obtained by coding firstinformation and second information at a packet level; extracting thefirst information and the second information respectively from the firstpackets and the second packets; and coding the first information and thesecond information at a packet level.

The following describes embodiments of the present invention withreference to drawings.

First Embodiment

The following describes a first embodiment of the present invention withreference to drawings.

<Transmitter>

FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of a communication apparatus 11 on atransmitting side (transmitter 11) in the first embodiment.

The transmitter 11 includes a packet generation unit 101, a packet datacoding unit 102, a physical layer error correction coding unit 103, amodulation unit 104, a transmission unit 105, a transmission antenna106, a reception antenna 107, a reception processing unit 108 and atransmission method determination unit 109. Here, the packet generationunit 101 and the packet data coding unit 102 are functional units thatfunction at a layer (e.g. application layer) at which signal processingis performed earlier than at the physical layer. Also, the physicallayer error correction coding unit 103, the modulation unit 104 and thetransmission unit 105 are functional units that function at the physicallayer.

The packet generation unit 101 receives information 131 and a controlsignal 141 as inputs. The packet generation unit 101 generatesinformation packets 132 with use of the information 131 based on thecontrol signal 141, and outputs the generated information packets 132 tothe packet data coding unit 102. Here, the control signal 141 shows thetransmission method (e.g. a coding rate of codes in the packet datacoding unit 102, a coding rate of error correction codes at the physicallayer, a modulation method and whether or not retransmission data is tobe transmitted or not). Note that the transmission method is not limitedto the above-shown methods, and may be any method as long as the methodincludes information necessary for controlling processing in each of theunits included in the transmitter 11.

The packet data coding unit 102 receives the information packets 132 andthe control signal 141 as inputs. The packet data coding unit 102 codesdata of the information packets 132 based on the control signal 141 toobtain transmission packets 133, and outputs the transmission packets133 to the physical layer error correction coding unit 103. Note thatthe packet generation unit 101 and the packet data coding unit 102 aredescribed in detail later with reference to FIG. 2.

The physical layer error correction coding unit 103 receivestransmission packets 133 and the control signal 141 as inputs. Thephysical layer error correction coding unit 103 codes data of thetransmission packets 133 based on the coding rate of the errorcorrection codes at the physical layer, for example, shown by thecontrol signal 141 to obtain transmission data 134, and outputs thetransmission data 134 to the modulation unit 104.

The modulation unit 104 receives the transmission data 134 and thecontrol signal 141 as inputs. The modulation unit 104 modulates thetransmission data 134 based on the modulation method shown by thecontrol signal 141 to obtain a base band signal 135, and outputs theresultant base band signal 135 to the transmission unit 105.

The transmission unit 105 receives the base band signal 135 as an input.The transmission unit 105 performs processing (e.g. frequency conversionand amplification) on the base band signal 135 to obtain a transmissionsignal 136, and outputs the resultant transmission signal 136 to thetransmission antenna 106. Then, the transmission antenna 106 outputs thetransmission signal 136. Note that the transmission signal 136 outputtedfrom the transmission antenna 106 is received by a receiver with whichthe transmitter communicates.

The reception processing unit 108A receives, as an input, a receptionsignal 137 received in the reception antenna 107 from the receiver. Thereception processing unit 108 demodulates and decodes the receptionsignal 137 to obtain data 138. Then, the reception processing unit 108outputs the data 138 and feedback information 139 (received from thereceiver) to a functional block (not depicted) and the transmissionmethod determination unit 109, respectively. Here, the feedbackinformation 139 includes the following examples: information on packetnumbers of erroneous packets, information on received signal strengthindicator when the receiver receives a modulation signal transmitted bythe transmitter 11; Channel State Information (CSI); a packet errorrate; a bit error rate; and information on a retransmission request.Note that the feedback information 139 is not limited to theabove-described content.

The transmission method determination unit 109 receives, as inputs, thefeedback information 139 and information 140 on a transmission methodset by a user of the transmitter 11. The transmission methoddetermination unit 109 determines a transmission method (e.g. a codingrate of codes in a coding unit (parity packet generation unit) 152, acoding rate of error correction codes at the physical layer, amodulation method and whether or not retransmission data is to betransmitted or not) with use of the feedback information 139 and theinformation 140. Then, the transmission method determination unit 109outputs the control signal 141 that is based on the determined content.As described in the above, the transmission method may be determinedbased on the feedback information received from the receiver. However,the transmission method does not necessarily have to be based on thefeedback information received from the receiver. For example, when thetransmitter recognizes a communication environment (e.g. communicationtraffic and a state of a channel), the transmission method determinationunit 109 may determine the transmission method without referring to thefeedback information received from the receiver.

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of the packet generation unit 101 and thepacket data coding unit 102 shown in FIG. 1.

The packet generation unit 101 receives information 131 and the controlsignal 141 as inputs. The packet generation unit 101 generates theinformation packets 132 (e.g. information packets #1 to #n) with use ofthe information 131 based on the number of bits composing packets and amethod as to how control information (to be transmitted together withthe information in the packets) is configured, for example. Then, thepacket generation unit 101 outputs the generated information packets 132to the packet data coding unit 102.

As shown in FIG. 2, the packet data coding unit 102 includes aninterleaving unit 151, the coding unit 152, an error detection codeinsertion unit 153, a storage unit 154, an error detection codeinsertion unit 155 and a selection unit 156.

The interleaving unit 151 receives the information packets 132 asinputs. The interleaving unit 151 interleaves bits of the informationpacket 132 in units of bits or in units of sets of plural bits, forexample, and outputs interleaved data 171 to the coding unit 152.

The coding unit (parity packet generation unit) 152 receives theinterleaved data 171 and the control signal 141 as inputs. The codingunit 152 generates parities by coding the interleaved data 171 based onthe coding rate of codes or a coding method, for example, shown by thecontrol signal 141. The coding unit (parity packet generation unit) 152generates parity packets 172 (e.g. parity packets #1 to #m) with use ofthe generated parities, and outputs the generated parity packets 172 tothe error detection code insertion unit 153. Note that the coding unit152 codes the interleaved data 171 with use of the following examples:LDPC (Low-Density Parity Check Codes); convolution codes; block codes;turbo codes; and Raptor codes. The coding method is not limited to theabove-described codes. Also, examples of the LDPC codes include LDPCblock codes and LDPC convolution codes.

The error detection code insertion unit 153 receives the parity packets172 as inputs. The error detection code insertion unit 153 inserts CRC(Cyclic Redundancy Check), for example, into each of the parity packets172 (e.g. parity packets #1 to #m) in order to judge if a packet erroroccurs in the receiver. Then, the error detection code insertion unit153 outputs parity packets 173 after the CRC insertion (e.g. paritypackets #1 to #m after the CRC insertion) into the storage unit 154.Here, error detection codes other than the CRC may be used. For example,the error detection may be performed with the block codes (e.g. the LDPCcodes).

The storage unit 154 receives the parity packets 173 after the CRCinsertion as inputs and stores therein the parity packets 173. Thestorage unit 154 receives the control signal 141 as an input. When thecontrol signal 141 indicates transmission of the retransmission data,the storage unit 154 transmits, to the selection unit 156, stored paritypackets 174 after the CRC insertion.

The error detection code insertion unit 155 receives the parity packets132 as inputs. The error detection code insertion unit 155 inserts theCRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check), for example, into each of the informationpackets 132 (e.g. information packets #1 to #n) in order to judgewhether or not the packet error occurs in the receiver. Then, the errordetection code insertion unit 155 outputs information packets 175 (e.g.information packets #1 to #n after the CRC insertion) to the selectionunit 156. Here, error detection codes other than the CRC may be used.For example, the error detection may be performed with the block codes(e.g. LDPC codes).

The selection unit 156 receives, as inputs, the parity packets 174 afterthe CRC insertion, the information packets 175 after the CRC insertionand control signal 141. The selection unit 156 selects packets to beoutputted based on the control signal 141, and outputs the selectedpackets as the transmission packets 133 to the physical layer errorcorrection coding unit 103. Here, when the control signal 141 does notindicate transmission of the retransmission data, the selection unit 156selects and outputs the information packets 175 after the CRC insertion.When the control signal 141 indicates the transmission of theretransmission data, the selection unit 156 selects and outputs theparity packets 174 after the CRC insertion. Processing such as codingand modulation at the physical layer is performed on the transmissionpackets 133 outputted from the selection unit 156. Then, thetransmission packets 133 are transmitted to the receiver.

FIG. 3 shows an example of transmission operations of the transmitter 11in FIG. 1. The following describes a relation between the layer at whichsignal processing is performed earlier than the physical layer (e.g.application layer) and the physical layer, and especially matters thatrelate to coding.

An information packet group 201 is a group of information packetsinputted in the packet data coding unit 102 of the transmitter 11. Asshown in FIG. 3, the information packet group 201 is composed ofinformation packets #1 to #n.

The packet data coding unit 102 of the transmitter 11 receivesinformation packets #1 to #n as inputs. The packet data coding unit 102generates the parity packets #1 to #m by coding the information packets#1 to #n. At a time of initial transmission, the packet data coding unit102 outputs an information packet group 202 (information packets #1 to#n). At a time of retransmission, the packet data coding unit 102outputs a parity packet group 203 (parity packets #1 to #m). Note thatalthough the CRC is inserted into each of the information packets andthe parity packets outputted from the packet data coding unit 102,descriptions regarding the CRC is omitted here.

The following describes an exemplary case where the information packets#1 to #n of the information packet group 201 and the information packets#1 to #n of the information packet group 202 are identical. However, thestructure of the information packets of the information packet group 201and the structure of the information packets of the information packetgroup 202 do not have to be identical as long as all information pieceson the information packet group 201 are transmitted to a receiverwithout an error. Therefore, although FIG. 3 shows an example where thenumber of bits composing the information packets of the informationpacket group 201 and the number of bits composing the informationpackets of the information packet group 202 are identical, it ispossible that the number of bits composing the information packets ofthe information packet group 201 and the number of bits composing theinformation packets of the information packet group 202 are different.

Next, the physical layer error correction coding unit 103 generates aninformation packet group 204 (information packets #1 to #n coded at thephysical layer) by coding the information packet group 202 (informationpackets #1 to #n) at the physical layer at the time of initialtransmission. The information packet group 204 (information packets #1to #n coded at the physical layer) is transmitted from the transmitter11.

In this case, when an information packet error occurs in the receiver,the receiver makes a retransmission request to the transmitter 11. Atthe time of retransmission, the physical layer error correction codingunit 103 generates a parity packet group 205 (parity packets #1 to #mcoded at the physical layer) by coding the parity packet group 203(parity packets #1 to #m) at the physical layer. The transmitter 11transmits parity packet group 205 (parity packets #1 to #m coded at thephysical layer).

<Receiver>

FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of a communication apparatus 31 on areceiving side (receiver 31) that communicates with the transmitter 11in FIG. 1. The receiver 31 includes a reception antenna 301, a receptionunit 302, a communication method identifying unit 303, a physical layerdecoding unit 304, an error detection unit 305, a feedback informationgeneration unit 306, a transmission processing unit 307, a transmissionantenna 308, a storage unit 309 and a packet decoding unit 310.

The reception unit 302A receives, as inputs, a reception signal 331 fromthe reception antenna 301. The reception unit 302 performs, on thereception signal, processing such as frequency conversion and orthogonaldemodulation. Then, the reception unit 302 outputs control information332 included in the reception signal 331 to the communication methodidentifying unit 303, and outputs reception data 333 to the physicallayer decoding unit 304. Note that a frame structure regarding thereception signal 331 includes, in addition to data symbol, a controlsymbol for transmitting: information on a modulation signal; informationon the error detection codes at the physical layer; information on thecoding rate of the error correction codes; information on codes used bythe transmitter at a layer (e.g. application layer) at which signalprocessing is performed earlier than the physical layer; information ona coding rate of the codes; and information on whether data isretransmission data, for example. Note that the control symbol includedin the frame structure is not limited to the above, and the framestructure may include some of the above control symbols or may includeanother control symbol.

The communication method identifying unit 303 receives the controlinformation 332 as an input. The communication method identifying unit303 extracts: information on a modulation signal; information on theerror detection codes at the physical layer; information on the codingrate of the error correction codes; information on codes used by thetransmitter at a layer (e.g. application layer) at which signalprocessing is performed earlier than the physical layer; information ona coding rate of the codes; and information on whether data isretransmission data, for example. The communication method identifyingunit 303 outputs communication method information 334 including theextracted information pieces to each of the physical layer decoding unit304, the storage unit 309 and the packet decoding unit 310.

The physical layer decoding unit 304 receives the reception data 333 andthe communication method information 334 as inputs. The physical layerdecoding unit 304 performs decoding at the physical layer based oninformation on the error correction codes at the physical layer andinformation on the coding rate of the error correction codes, forexample, shown by the communication method information 334. Then, thephysical layer decoding unit 304 outputs the decoded data 335 to theerror detection unit 305.

The error detection unit 305 receives the decoded data 335 as an input.The error detection unit 305 performs error detection on the data 335after the decoding in units of packets. The error detection unit 305outputs the result of the error detection and data 336 of the packets toeach of the feedback information generation unit 306, the storage unit309 and the packet decoding unit 310.

The feedback information generation unit 306 receives, as inputs, theresult of the error detection and the data 336 of the packets. Thefeedback information generation unit 306 determines whether or not tomake a retransmission request based on the result of the errordetection. The feedback information generation unit 306 generatesinformation (information on numbers of erroneous packets and informationon a retransmission request, for example) as feedback information 337,and outputs the feedback information 337 to the transmission processingunit 307. Note that the following shows an exemplary case where thetransmitter determines the retransmission method (retransmission withuse of the parity packet). However, the receiver may determine theretransmission method. In this case, the feedback information includesinformation on the retransmission method.

The transmission processing unit 307 receives the feedback information337 and information 338 as inputs. The transmission processing unit 307performs processing such as coding and modulation on the feedbackinformation 337 and the information 338 to obtain a transmission signal339, and outputs the transmission signal 339. The transmission signal339 is outputted from the transmission antenna 308. Note that thetransmission signal 339 outputted from the transmission antenna 308 isreceived by a receiver with which the transmitter communicates.

The storage unit 309 receives the result of the error detection, thedata 336 of the packets and the communication method information 334 asinputs. The storage unit 309 stores therein data of packets having noerror, based on the result of the error detection. When thecommunication method information 334 indicates that data isretransmission data, the storage unit 309 outputs the data 340 of thestored packets to the packet decoding unit 310.

The packet decoding unit 310 receives, as inputs, the result of theerror detection, data 336 of the packets, data 340 of the packets andthe communication method information 33. When the communication methodinformation 334 indicates that data is not retransmission data, thepacket decoding unit 310 outputs, as packets 341, the packets inputtedby the error detection unit 305 without performing a decoding operation.When the communication method information 334 indicates that data isretransmission data, on the other hand, the packet decoding unit 310performs decoding on both the data 340 of the packets, and a set of theretransmitted result of the error detection and the data 336 of thepackets. Then, the packet decoding unit 310 outputs packets obtained asa result of the decoding, as the packets 341.

The following describes the packet decoding unit 310 with reference toFIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a structural diagram of the packet decoding unit 310in FIG. 4. The packet decoding unit 310 includes an interleaving unit351 and a decoding unit 352.

The interleaving unit 351 receives, as inputs, the information packets371 decoded at the physical layer and parity packets 372 decoded at thephysical layer. Note that when the communication method information 334indicates that data is not retransmission data, only the informationpackets 371 decoded at the physical layer are inputted in theinterleaving unit 351. When the communication method information 334indicates that data is retransmission data, the interleaving unit 351receives, as inputs, the information packets 371 decoded at the physicallayer and the parity packets 372 decoded at the physical layer.

The interleaving unit 351 interleaves the information packets 371decoded at the physical layer (e.g. the information packets #1 to #Ndecoded at the physical layer) and the parity packet 372 decoded at thephysical layer (e.g. parity packets #1 to #M decoded at the physicallayer). Then, the interleaving unit 351 outputs the interleaved data 373(e.g. information packets each having a packet number and parity packetseach having a packet number) to the decoding unit 352. At this time,some of the information packets and some of the parity packets aremissing while the other information packets and the other parity packetsare not missing, as shown in one example in FIG. 5. Note that each XP inFIG. 5 shows an information packet while each PP shows a parity packet.

The decoding unit 352 receives the interleaved data 373 as an input.When the communication method information 334 indicates that data isretransmission data, the decoding unit 352 obtains information packets374 by restoring missing data with use of the information packets andthe parity packets that are not missing. However, when some of theinformation packets are missing, a retransmission request is made. Notethat when the communication method information 334 indicates that datais not retransmission data, the decoding unit 352 does not perform aparticular decoding operation

FIG. 6A shows an example of reception operations of the transmitter 31in FIG. 4.

The receiver 31 receives the information packets (coded at the physicallayer after the CRC insertion) initially transmitted by the transmitter11. The physical layer decoding unit 304 of the receiver 31 performs, atthe physical layer, the error correction decoding on the received datato obtain the information packets #1 to #n decoded at the physicallayer. Then, the error detection unit 305 performs the error detectionon the information packets #1 to #n decoded at the physical layer.

When the result of the error detection by the error detection unit 305indicates that no erroneous information packets exist, the receiver 31does not make a retransmission request to the transmitter 11.

FIG. 6B shows another example of reception operations of the transmitter31 in FIG. 4.

The receiver 31 receives the information packets (coded at the physicallayer after the CRC insertion) initially transmitted by the transmitter11. The physical layer decoding unit 304 of the receiver 31 performs, atthe physical layer, the error correction decoding on the received datato obtain the information packets #1 to #n decoded at the physicallayer. Then, the error detection unit 305 performs the error detectionon the information packets #1 to #n decoded at the physical layer.

When the result of the error detection by the error detection unit 305indicates that erroneous packets exist, the receiver 31 makes aretransmission request to the transmitter 11. When the retransmissionrequest is made, the transmitter 11 transmits the parity packets #1 to#m (coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion).

Then, the receiver 31 receives the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion). The physical layer decodingunit 304 of the receiver 31 performs, at the physical layer, the errorcorrection decoding on the received data to obtain the parity packets #1to #m decoded at the physical layer. Then, the error detection unit 305performs the error detection on the parity packets #1 to #m decoded atthe physical layer. Then, parity packets having no error, for example,are extracted.

Then, the packet decoding unit 310 obtains information packets #1 to #nby decoding packets with use of the information packets having no errorand parity packets having no error. Here, the information packets havingno error are stored in the storage unit 309. However, when the receiver31 is unable to obtain all the information packets #1 to #n, thereceiver 31 makes another retransmission request in some cases.

<Communication Between Transmitter and Receiver>

FIG. 7 shows an example of communication between the transmitter 11shown in FIG. 1 and the receiver 31 shown in FIG. 4.

The transmitter 11 inserts the CRC into each of the information packets#1 to #n with use of the packet data coding unit 102, and codes, at thephysical layer, the information packets #1 to #n after the CRC insertionwith use of the physical layer error correction coding unit 103. Then,the transmitter 11 transmits the information packets #1 to #n (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion). These packets are referredto as a packet group G1. At this time, the packet group G1 does notinclude parity packets obtained by coding the information packets withuse of the coding unit 152 shown in FIG. 2.

The receiver 31 receives the information packets #1 to #n (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion). Then, the receiver 31 performs,on the information packets #1 to #n, the decoding processing at thephysical layer with use of the physical layer decoding unit 304, andperforms the error detection processing with use of the error detectionunit 305. Here, the receiver 31 transmits, to the transmitter 11,feedback information including a retransmission request, when it ispresumed that the erroneous information packets exist. At this time, thestorage unit 309 of the receiver 31 stores therein the informationpackets having no error.

The transmitter 11 generates parity packets #1 to #m by coding theinformation packets #1 to #n, and inserts the CRC into each of theparity packets #1 to #m, with use of the packet data coding unit 102.The transmitter 11 codes, at the physical layer, the parity packets #1to #m after the CRC insertion with use of the physical layer errorcorrection coding unit 103. Then, the transmitter 11 transmits theparity packets #1 to #m (coded at the physical layer after the CRCinsertion).

By the time when the transmitter 11 transmits the information packets #1to #n, the parity packets #1 to #m after the CRC insertion have beengenerated by the packet data coding unit 102 shown in FIG. 2, and storedin the storage unit 154. When the retransmission request is made, thepacket data coding unit 102 outputs the parity packets #1 to #m afterthe CRC insertion that have been stored in the storage unit 154. Thephysical layer error correction coding unit 103 codes, at the physicallayer, the parity packets #1 to #m after the CRC insertion. Then, theparity packets #1 to #m (coded at the physical layer after the CRCinsertion) are transmitted.

The receiver 31 receives the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion). Then, the receiver 31 performs,on the parity packets #1 to #m, the decoding processing at the physicallayer with use of the physical layer decoding unit 304, and the errordetection processing with use of the error detection unit 305. Thepacket decoding unit 310 obtains information packets by performingpacket decoding processing on the information packets having no errorand the parity packets having no error. Here, the information packetshaving no error are stored in the storage unit 309.

According to the present embodiment, the receiver 31 generates theparity packets with use of the information packets at a layer at whichsignal processing is performed earlier than at the physical layer(generates retransmission data at a packet level), and retransmits theparity packets. Thus, flexible retransmission data can be generated.This makes it possible to effectively reduce the packet error rate byretransmitting the parity packets.

Second Embodiment

The following describes a second embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to drawings. A communication apparatus on a transmittingside (transmitter) in the second embodiment has, in addition to thefunctions of the transmitter 11 of the first embodiment, a function ofchanging the coding rate of the codes at a layer at which signalprocessing is performed earlier than at the physical layer (the numberof parity packets to be retransmitted), in accordance with the number oferroneous packets. However, a communication apparatus on a receivingside (receiver) in each of the present embodiment and the thirdembodiment has the structures as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. Such areceiver transmits, to the transmitter, feedback information includinginformation on a retransmission request and information (e.g. the numberof erroneous packets). Note that the same reference numerals are givento elements of the present embodiment that are substantially the same asthe elements of the first embodiment. Since the descriptions thereof canbe applied to the elements of the present embodiment, the descriptionsare omitted or are kept brief.

<Transmitter>

The transmitter of the present embodiment includes a packet data codingunit 102 a and the transmission method determination unit 109respectively having different functions from the packet data coding unit102 and the transmission method determination unit 109 that are includedin the transmitter 11 of the first embodiment. The following describesthe packet data coding unit 102 a and the transmission methoddetermination unit 109.

The following describes the packet data coding unit 102 a with referenceto FIG. 8. FIG. 8 is a structural diagram of the packet generation unit101 and the packet data coding unit 102 a that are included in thetransmitter shown in FIG. 8.

The packet data coding unit 102 a is different from the packet datacoding unit 102 in that the packet data coding unit 102 a has aselection unit 156 a instead of the selection unit 156, does not includethe storage unit 154 between the error detection code insertion unit 153and the selection unit 156 a, and includes a storage unit 154 a betweenthe packet generation unit 101 and the interleaving unit 151. Thereasons for this are as follows. The transmitter determines the codingrate of codes in the coding unit 152 (the number of parity packets to beretransmitted) in accordance with the number of erroneous packets. It isdifficult to determine the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit152 before obtaining, from the receiver, the feedback informationincluding the number of erroneous packets.

The storage unit 154 a receives the parity packets 132 as inputs. Thestorage unit 154 a receives the control signal 141 as an input. When thecontrol signal 141 indicates transmission of the retransmission data(when the feedback information including the retransmission request isreceived from the receiver), the storage unit 154 a outputs the storedinformation packets 132 a to the interleaving unit 151. The interleavingunit 151 interleaves bits composing the information packets 132 a inunits of bits or in units of sets of plural bits, for example, inaccordance with information regarding a interleaving method, forexample, shown by the control signal 141. The coding unit (parity packetgeneration unit) 152 generates the parity packets by coding interleaveddata 171 based on the coding rate of codes or a coding method, forexample, shown by the control signal 141.

The selection unit 156 a receives, as inputs, the information packets175 after the CRC insertion, the parity packets 173 after the CRCinsertion and control signal 141. Here, when the control signal 141 doesnot indicate transmission of retransmission data, the selection unit 156a selects and outputs the information packets 175 after the CRCinsertion. When the control signal 141 indicates the transmission of theretransmission data, the selection unit 156 a selects and outputs theparity packets 173 after the CRC insertion.

The following describes an example of determining the number of paritypackets to be retransmitted (the coding rate of the codes in the codingunit 152) with use of the transmission method determination unit 109,with reference to FIG. 9. FIG. 9 describes the example of determiningthe number of parity packets to be retransmitted with use of thetransmission method determination unit 109.

Suppose that the transmitter transmits information packets #1 to #7 tothe receiver, and two information packets #2 and #4 from among thereceived information packets are missing in the receiver. In this case,the receiver transmits, to the transmitter, the feedback informationincluding information such as the number of erroneous informationpackets and the retransmission request.

The transmission method determination unit 109 determines, as the numberof parity packets to be retransmitted, a number (three or more in thisexample) that is larger than the number of erroneous information packets(two in this example) based on the number of erroneous informationpackets that is indicated by the feedback information 139. Then, thetransmission method determination unit 109 outputs the control signal141 showing the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit 152(corresponding to the number of parity packets to be retransmitted).Thus, the transmitter transmits three or more parity packets. Here, thenumber of bits composing the information packets and the number of bitscomposing the parity packets are identical.

The decoding operation by the packet decoding unit 310 of the receiveris equivalent, for example, to solving simultaneous equations with useof the Gauss elimination method. Therefore, when two information packetsare missing, an unknown value exists that corresponds to the number ofbits composing two information packets. In this case, the number ofequations that is large enough to solve the number of bits composing thetwo information packets is necessary. Therefore, when the number of bitscomposing the information packets and the number of bits composing theparity packets are identical, it is necessary to transmit three or moreparity packets. In addition, when the number of bits composing theinformation packets and the number of bits composing the parity packetsare identical and L information packets are missing (L being an integerequal to or greater than one), it is necessary to transmit the number ofparity packets that is equal to or greater than (L+1).

Note that the number of parity packets to be retransmitted (the codingrate of the codes in the coding unit 152) may be determined so that thetotal number of bits composing parity packets to be retransmitted isgreater than the total number of bits composing the erroneousinformation packets from among the information packets received by thereceiver.

<Communication Between Transmitter and Receiver>

FIG. 10 shows an example of communication between a communicationapparatus 12 on a transmitting side (transmitter 12) and a communicationapparatus 32 on a receiving side (receiver 32) in the presentembodiment.

The transmitter 12 transmits the information packets #1 to #n (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion). These packets are referredto as a packet group G1. At this time, the packet group G1 does notinclude parity packets that can be obtained by coding the informationpackets with use of the coding unit 152 shown in FIG. 8.

The receiver 32 receives the information packets #1 to #n (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion). Then, the receiver 32 performs,on the information packets #1 to #n, the decoding processing at thephysical layer with use of the physical layer decoding unit 304, and theerror detection processing with use of the error detection unit 305.Here, the receiver 32 transmits, to the transmitter 12, feedbackinformation including a retransmission request and the number oferroneous information packets, for example, when it is presumed that theerroneous information packets exist. At this time, the storage unit 309of the receiver 32 stores therein the information packets having noerror.

The transmitter 12 receives the feedback information. When the feedbackinformation includes the retransmission request, the transmitter 12determines, with use of the transmission method determination unit 109,the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit 152 (the number ofparity packets to be retransmitted) in accordance with the number oferroneous information packets included in the feedback information 139.The transmitter 12 generates parity packets #1 to #m by coding theinformation packets #1 to #n at the determined coding rate of the codeswith use of the coding unit 152. Here, the information packets #1 to #nare stored in the storage unit 154 a. The transmitter 12 inserts the CRCinto each of the parity packets #1 to #m with use of the error detectioncode insertion unit 153, and codes, at the physical layer, the paritypackets #1 to #m after the CRC insertion with use of the physical layererror correction coding unit 103. Then, the transmitter 12 transmits theparity packets #1 to #m (coded at the physical layer after the CRCinsertion).

The receiver 32 receives the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion). The packet decoding unit 310obtains information packets by performing packet decoding processingwith use of the information packets having no error and the paritypacket having no error. Here, the information packets having no errorare stored in the storage unit 309.

In the present embodiment, it is important that the transmitter 12determines the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit 152 (thenumber of parity packets to be retransmitted) in accordance with thenumber of erroneous information packets. This is because since thenumber of missing information packets (the number of missing informationbits) has been already known, the minimum required number of paritypackets (number of parity bits) is clearly known. Even if the number ofparity packets that is smaller than the minimum required number ofparity packets is transmitted to the receiver 32, the receiver 32 cannotrestore the information packets. Accordingly, there is a merit that itis possible to reduce the possibility that the receiver 32 makes anotherretransmission request, by determining the coding rate of the codes inthe coding unit 152 (the number of parity packets to be retransmitted)in accordance with the number of erroneous information packets.

According to the present embodiment, the transmitter 12 generates theparity packets with use of the information packets by changing thecoding rate of the codes in the coding unit 152 (the number of paritypackets to be retransmitted) in accordance with the number of erroneousinformation packets, and retransmits the parity packets. Thus, it ispossible to reduce the possibility of packet error occurrence by theretransmission. Therefore, data reception quality can be improved. Also,the number of retransmissions can be reduced. Therefore, datatransmission efficiency can be improved.

Third Embodiment

The following describes a third embodiment of the present invention withreference to drawings. The above second embodiment describes the changein the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit 152 in the unicastcommunication mode. The third embodiment describes the change in thecoding rate of the codes in a multicast communication mode. Note that adescription of the broadcast that relates to the present embodiment canbe substantially the same as a description of the multicast. Note thatthe same reference numerals are provided to elements of the presentembodiment that are substantially the same as the elements of the firstand second embodiments. Since the descriptions thereof can be applied tothe elements of the present embodiment, the descriptions are omitted orare kept brief.

<Transmitter>

The transmitter of the present embodiment includes a transmission methoddetermination unit 109 b having different functions from the functionsof the transmission method determination unit 109 of the transmitter inthe second embodiment. The following describes the transmission methoddetermination unit 109 b.

FIG. 11 is a structural diagram of the transmission method determinationunit 109 b of the transmitter. The transmission method determinationunit 109 b includes a retransmission requesting terminal number countunit 501, a terminal packet error number collecting unit 502, aretransmission packet number determination unit 503 and a transmissionmethod information generation unit 504. The following describes afunction relating in particular to determination of the number of paritypackets to be retransmitted from among functions of the transmissionmethod determination unit 109 b.

The retransmission requesting terminal number count unit 501 receivesthe feedback information 139 as an input. The retransmission requestingterminal number count unit 501 counts the number of receivers that maketransmission requests, based on the request information forretransmission, for example, included in the feedback information 139received from each of the receivers. Then, the retransmission requestingterminal number count unit 501 outputs, to the retransmission packetnumber determination unit 503, retransmission requesting terminal numberinformation 531 showing a counted value.

The terminal packet error number collecting unit 502 receives thefeedback information 139 as an input. The terminal packet error numbercollecting unit 502 collects information on the number of erroneousinformation packets, for example, included in the feedback information139 received from each of the receivers. The terminal packet errornumber collecting unit 502 outputs, to the retransmission packet numberdetermination unit 503, terminal packet error number information 532showing the number of erroneous information packets in each of thereceivers.

The retransmission packet number determination unit 503 receives, asinputs, the retransmission requesting terminal number information 531and the terminal packet error number information 532. The retransmissionpacket number determination unit 503 determines the number of paritypackets to be retransmitted (the coding rate of the codes in the codingunit 152), and outputs, to the transmission method informationgeneration unit 504, retransmission parity packet number information(the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit 152) 533 indicating thenumber of parity packets to be retransmitted (the coding rate of thecodes in the coding unit 152).

The transmission method information generation unit 504 receives, asinputs, the retransmission parity packet number information 533 andanother transmission method information 534. The transmission methodinformation generation unit 504 outputs the control signal 141 includingthese information pieces.

Note that a concrete example of determining the number of parity packetsto be retransmitted with use of the transmission method determinationunit 139 b is described later with reference to FIG. 14.

<Communication Between Transmitter and Receiver>

FIG. 12 shows a conceptual diagram of the multicast communication. Abase station (transmitter) S simultaneously transmits the sameinformation to each of a plurality of terminals (receivers) T1 to Tn.Then, each of the terminals T1 to Tn transmits, to the base station S,the feedback information including the request information forretransmission, information on the number of erroneous informationpackets and indexes of the erroneous information packets, for example.

FIG. 13 shows an example of communication among the transmitter 13 andcommunication apparatuses 33A, 33B and 33C on a receiving side(receivers 33A, 33B and 33C) in the present embodiment. Note that thetransmitter 13 corresponds to the base station S shown in FIG. 12, andthe receivers 33A, 33B and 33C correspond to terminals T1 to Tn shown inFIG. 12.

The transmitter 13 simultaneously transmits the same information packetsto each of the receivers 33A, 33B and 33C. Here, the transmitter 13transmits the information packets #1 to #n (coded at the physical layerafter the CRC insertion). These packets are collectively referred to asa packet group G1. At this time, the packet group G1 does not includeparity packets that can be obtained by coding the information packetswith use of the coding unit 152 shown in FIG. 8.

The receiver 33A receives information packets #1 to #n (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion), and transmits, to thetransmitter 13, the feedback information including, for example, theretransmission request and the number of erroneous information packets,when it is presumed that the erroneous information packets exist.

Each of the receivers 33B and 33C receives information packets #1 to #n(coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion), and transmits, tothe transmitter 13, the feedback information including, for example, theretransmission request and the number of erroneous information packets,when it is presumed that the erroneous information packets exist.

The transmitter 13 receives the feedback information from each of thereceivers 33A, 33B and 33C. The transmitter 13 transmits the paritypackets when the feedback information includes the retransmissionrequest. Suppose that many receivers receive the information packetsfrom the transmitter 13 (not depicted in FIG. 13). The transmitter 13counts the number of receivers that have made the retransmissionrequests, with use of the retransmission requesting terminal numbercount unit 501. The transmitter 13 collects the number of erroneousinformation packets in each of the receivers, with use of the terminalpacket error number collecting unit 502. Then, the retransmission packetnumber determination unit 503 determines the coding rate of the codes inthe coding unit 152 (the number of parity packets to be retransmitted)in accordance with the number of erroneous information packets in eachof the receivers. The transmitter 13 generates parity packets #1 to #mby coding the information packets #1 to #n at the determined coding rateof the codes with use of the coding unit 152. Here, the informationpackets #1 to #n are stored in the storage unit 154 a. The transmitter13 inserts the CRC into each of the parity packets #1 to #m with use ofthe error detection code insertion unit 153, and codes, at the physicallayer, the parity packets #1 to #m after the CRC insertion with use ofthe physical layer error correction coding unit 103. Then, thetransmitter 13 transmits the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion).

Each of the receivers 33A, 33B and 33C receives the parity packets #1 to#m (coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion). Each of thereceivers 33A, 33B and 33C obtains information packets by performingpacket decoding processing on the information packets having no errorand the parity packets having no error. Here, the information packetshaving no error are stored in the storage unit 309.

<Concrete Example of Determining Number of Parity Packets to beRetransmitted>

FIG. 14 describes a concrete example of determining the number of paritypackets to be retransmitted with use of the transmission methoddetermination unit 109 b.

Suppose that: the transmitter 13 transmits information packets #1 to #7to each of the receivers 33A, 33B and 33C; and three packets #2, #5 and#7, two packets #1, #2 and three packets #3, #4 and #6 are missing inthe receivers 33A, 33B and 33C respectively. As with the descriptionsgiven of FIG. 9, when the number of bits composing the informationpackets and the number of bits composing the parity packets to beretransmitted are identical, the transmitter 13 retransmits four or moreparity packets, three or more parity packets and four or more paritypackets to the receivers 33A, 33B and 33C, respectively. In this way,all the receivers 33A, 33B and 33C can obtain all the informationpackets as a result of the retransmission. Therefore, if the transmitter13 retransmits four (that is larger by one than the maximum number ofthe numbers of erroneous information packets in the receivers 33A, 33 band 33C) or more parity packets, all of the receivers 33A, 33B and 33Care possibly able to obtain all the information packets. Thus, thetransmitter 13 determines the number of parity packets to beretransmitted (the total number of bits composing the parity packets tobe retransmitted).

Note that the number of parity packets (the coding rate of the codes inthe coding unit 152) to be retransmitted may be determined so that thetotal number of bits composing parity packets to be retransmitted isgreater than the total number of bits composing the erroneousinformation packets in the receiver having the maximum number oferroneous information packets from among the receivers.

According to the present embodiment, the transmitter can estimate thenumber of erroneous information packets in each of the receivers. Also,the transmitter can estimate the coding rate of the codes in the codingunit 152 (the number of parity packets to be retransmitted). Here, thecoding rate can reduce the packet error rate at the time of theretransmission to each of the receivers. Therefore, the packet errorrate of the information packets can be reduced after the retransmissionin as many receivers as possible.

Note that the following example is possible. A threshold value isprovided for the number of receivers that have made retransmissionrequests. When the number of receivers that have made the retransmissionrequests is equal to or greater than a first threshold value, thetransmitter performs retransmission with use of the parity packets. Whenthe number of receivers that have made the retransmission requests isequal to or smaller than a second threshold value, the transmitterperforms retransmission at the physical layer (conventionalretransmission). Then, when the number of receivers is equal to orsmaller than the first threshold value and is equal to or greater thanthe second threshold value, the transmitter judges which type ofretransmission methods should be adopted in accordance with an errorstate of the packets in each of the receivers.

Note that when the number of receivers (in each of which the packeterror occurs) is small, the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit152 is increased (the number of parity packets to be retransmitted isreduced). When the number of receivers in which the packet error occursis large, the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit 152 is reduced(the number of parity packets to be retransmitted is increased). Thus,it is possible to realize both the improvement of the data transmissionefficiency and the reduction of the packet error rate at the time ofretransmission.

Fourth Embodiment

The following describes a fourth embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to drawings. A communication apparatus on a transmittingside (transmitter) in the fourth embodiment reduces the number ofretransmissions by performing retransmission at the physical layer aswell as the retransmission with use of the parity packets as describedin the first embodiment. Note that the same reference numerals areprovided to elements of the present embodiment that are substantiallythe same as the elements of the first embodiment. Since the descriptionsthereof can be applied to the elements of the present embodiment, thedescriptions are omitted or are kept brief.

<Transmitter>

The transmitter of the present embodiment has a physical layer errorcorrection coding unit 103 c having different functions from thefunctions of the physical layer error correction coding unit 103included in the transmitter 11 of the first embodiment. The followingdescribes the physical layer error correction coding unit 103 c.

FIG. 15 is a structural diagram of the physical layer error correctioncoding unit 103 c and the modulation unit 104 included in thetransmitter. The physical layer error correction coding unit 103 cincludes a coding unit 701, a storage unit 702 and a selection unit 703.

The coding unit 701 receives the transmission packet 133 and the controlsignal 141 as inputs. The coding unit 701 codes data of the transmissionpackets 133 based on the coding rate of the error correction codes atthe physical layer, for example, shown by the control signal 141, andoutputs coded data 731 to each of the storage unit 702 and the selectionunit 703.

The storage unit 702 receives the coded data 731 as an input. Thestorage unit 702 receives the control signal 141 as an input. When thecontrol signal 141 indicates transmission of the retransmission data,the storage unit 702 outputs, as retransmission data 732, the coded datastored therein to the selection unit 703. Here, the coded data that hasbeen outputted from the storage unit 702 as retransmission data is codeddata of the information packet corresponding to the information packethaving an erroneous packet number in the receiver.

The election unit 703 receives, as inputs, the coded data 731, theretransmission data 732 and the control signal 141. When the controlsignal 141 does not indicate transmission of the retransmission data,the selection unit 703 selects and outputs the coded data 731 to themodulation unit 104 as the transmission data 134. When the controlsignal 141 indicates transmission of the retransmission data, theselection unit 703 selects and outputs the retransmission data 732 (thecoded data corresponding to the packet number of each of the erroneousinformation packets in the receiver) to the modulation unit 104 as thetransmission data 134. Also, the selection unit 703 selects and outputsthe coded data 731 (the coded data of the parity packets) to themodulation unit 104 as the transmission data 134.

The modulation unit (mapping unit) 104 receives the transmission data134 and the control signal 141 as inputs. The modulation unit 104modulates the transmission data 134 based on the modulation method shownby the control signal 141, and outputs the base band signal 135 obtainedby the modulation.

<Receiver>

FIG. 16 is a structural diagram of a communication apparatus 34 on areceiving side (receiver 34) in the present embodiment. The receiver 34shown in FIG. 16 is different from the receiver 31 shown in FIG. 4 inthat the receiver 34 has a function for supporting retransmission at thephysical layer. That is, the reception unit 34 includes a physical layerdecoding unit 304 c having different functions from the functions of thephysical layer decoding unit 304 of the receiver 31 shown in FIG. 31.The receiver 34 further includes a storage unit 315.

The storage unit 315 receives reception data 333 as an input. Note thatthe reception data 333 relates to the log likelihood ratio as an input.The storage unit 315 receives the communication method information 334as an input. When the communication method information 334 indicatesthat data is retransmission data, the storage unit 315 outputs storeddata 346 to the physical layer decoding unit 304 c.

The physical layer decoding unit 304 c receives, as inputs, thereception data 333, the data 346 and the communication methodinformation 334. When the communication method information 334 indicatesthat data is not retransmission data, the physical layer decoding unit304 c decodes the reception data 333 of the information packets, andoutputs decoded data 307 to the error detection unit 305. When thecommunication method information 334 indicates that data isretransmission data, on the other hand, the physical layer decoding unit304 c performs decoding processing with use of the reception data 333 ofthe information packets and data 346 of the information packets toobtain decoded data 335, and outputs the decoded data 335 to the errordetection unit 305. The physical layer decoding unit 304 c also decodesthe reception data 333 of the parity packets, and outputs decoded data307 to the error detection unit 305.

<Communication Between Transmitter and Receiver>

FIG. 17 shows an example of communication between the transmitter 14 andthe receiver 34 in the present embodiment.

The transmitter 14 transmits the information packets #1 to #n (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion). These packets arecollectively referred to as a packet group G1. At this time, the packetgroup G1 does not include parity packets that can be obtained by codingthe information packets with use of the coding unit 152 shown in FIG. 2.

The receiver 34 receives the information packets #1 to #n (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion). Then, the receiver 34 performs,on the information packets #1 to #n, the decoding processing at thephysical layer with use of the physical layer decoding unit 304 c, andthe error detection processing with use of the error detection unit 305.In the following, the receiver 34 transmits, to the transmitter 14, thefeedback information including, for example, a retransmission requestand packet numbers of the erroneous information packets #2 and #5, whenit is supposed that that packets #2 and #5 are erroneous.

The transmitter 14 receives the feedback information. When the feedbackinformation includes the retransmission request, the transmitter 14transmits the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at the physical layer afterthe CRC insertion) together with the information packets #2 and #5 whosepacket numbers are packet numbers of erroneous information packets.Here, the information packets #2 and #5 have been coded at the physicallayer after the CRC insertion, and stored in the storage unit 702.

The receiver 34 receives the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion) as well as the informationpackets #2 and #5 (coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion).The receiver 34 performs, on the data 346 stored in the storage unit 315and the reception data 333 of the information packets #2 and #5,decoding processing at the physical layer the with use of the physicallayer decoding unit 304 c, and the error detection with use of the errordetection unit 305. The receiver 34 performs, on the parity packets #1to #m (coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion), thedecoding processing at the physical layer with use of the physical layerdecoding unit 304 c, and the error detection processing with use of theerror detection unit 305. Then, the receiver 34 obtains the informationpackets by performing decoding processing with use of the informationpackets having no error and the parity packets having no error, with useof the packet decoding unit 310.

According to the present embodiment, even when the packet error occursin the receiver 34, it is possible to greatly reduce the possibilitythat the receiver 34 makes a retransmission request, by performing boththe retransmission with use of the parity packets and the retransmissionat the physical layer. Note that the number of parity packets to beretransmitted (the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit 152) maybe changed in accordance with the number of erroneous packets, asdescribed in the second and third embodiments.

Note that it is possible to combine the retransmission method describedin the fourth embodiment (combination of the retransmission with use ofthe parity packets and the retransmission at the physical layer) and theretransmission methods described in the first to third embodiments(retransmission method of performing retransmission with use of theparity packets). In this case, the number of erroneous informationpackets is important. Therefore, it is preferable that the transmitterselects one method from among the retransmission method described in thefourth embodiment and the retransmission methods described in the firstto third embodiments in accordance with the number of erroneousinformation packets. When the number of erroneous information packets islarge, it is preferable to select the retransmission method described inthe fourth embodiment in order to reduce the possibility of packet erroroccurrence after the retransmission. When the number of erroneousinformation packets is small, on the other hand, it is preferable toselect the retransmission method described in the first to thirdembodiments. It is natural that when the number of erroneous informationpackets is small, it is possible to select a conventional retransmissionmethod called “chase combining” (shown in the Non Patent Literature 2),that is, the retransmission method of retransmitting the erroneouspackets at the physical layer. Note that selection methods and criteriafor selecting the retransmission method described in the fourthembodiment and the retransmission methods described in the first tothird embodiments are not limited to the above-state methods andcriteria.

Fifth Embodiment

The following describes a fifth embodiment of the present invention withreference to drawings. A communication apparatus on a transmitting side(transmitter) in the fifth embodiment is different from the transmitterof the fourth embodiment in a retransmission structure at the physicallayer. However, a communication apparatus on a receiving side (receiver)in the fifth embodiment has a structure shown in FIG. 16. Note that thesame reference numerals are provided to elements of the presentembodiment that are substantially the same as the elements of the firstto fourth embodiments. Since the descriptions thereof can be applied tothe elements of the present embodiment, the descriptions are omitted orare kept brief.

<Transmitter>

The transmitter of the present embodiment has a physical layer errorcorrection coding unit 103 d having different functions from thefunctions of the physical layer error correction coding unit 103 cincluded in the transmitter of the fourth embodiment. The followingdescribes the physical layer error correction coding unit 103 d.

FIG. 18 is a structural diagram showing the physical layer errorcorrection coding unit 103 d and the modulation unit 104 included in thetransmitter. The physical layer error correction coding unit 103 dincludes the coding unit 701, a puncture unit 711, a storage unit 702 dand a selection unit 703 d.

The puncture unit 711 receives the coded data 731 as an input. Thepuncture unit 711 determines bits that are not to be transmitted, inaccordance with a certain standard. The puncture unit 711 outputs, tothe selection unit 703, coded data 741 of bits other than the determinedbits that are not to be transmitted (hereinafter, also referred to as“coded data after the puncture” in some cases). The puncture unit 711also outputs, to the storage unit 702 d, coded data 742 of thedetermined bits (hereinafter, also referred to as “thinned data” in somecases).

The storage unit 702 receives thinned data 742 as an input and storesthe thinned data 742. The storage unit 702 d receives the control signal141 as an input. When the control signal 141 indicates transmission ofthe retransmission data, the storage unit 702 d outputs the thinned datastored therein to the selection unit 703 as the retransmission data 743(see FIG. 27). Here, the thinned data that has been outputted from thestorage unit 702 d as retransmission data is thinned data relating topacket numbers of the erroneous information packets.

The selection unit 703 d receives, as inputs, the coded data 741 afterthe puncture, the retransmission data 743 and the control signal 141.When the control signal 141 does not indicate transmission of theretransmission data, the selection unit 703 d selects and outputs thecoded data 741 after the puncture as the transmission data 134. When thecontrol signal 141 indicates transmission of the retransmission data, onthe other hand, the selection unit 703 d selects and outputs theretransmission data 732 (thinned data relating to packet numbers of theerroneous information packets in the receiver) to the modulation unit104 as the transmission data 134. Also, the selection unit 703 d selectsand outputs the coded data 731 (relating to the parity packets) afterthe puncture to the modulation unit 104 as the transmission data 134.

<Communication Between Transmitter and Receiver>

FIG. 19 shows an example of communication between the transmitter 15 andthe receiver 35 in the present embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 19, the transmitter 15 transmits the informationpackets #1 to #n (coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion).These packets are collectively referred to as a packet group G1. At thistime, the packet group G1 does not include parity packets that can beobtained by coding the information packets with use of the coding unit152 of the packet data coding unit 102 shown in FIG. 2.

The receiver 35 receives the information packets #1 to #n (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion). Then, the receiver 35 performs,on the information packets #1 to #n (coded at the physical layer afterthe CRC insertion), the decoding processing at the physical layer withuse of the physical layer decoding unit 304 c, and the error detectionprocessing with use of the error detection unit 305. In the following,the receiver 35 transmits, to the transmitter 15, the feedbackinformation including, for example, a retransmission request and packetnumbers of the erroneous information packets #2 and #5, when it ispresumed that packets #2 and #5 are erroneous.

When the transmitter 15 receives the feedback information including theretransmission request from the receiver 35, the transmitter 14transmits the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at the physical layer afterthe CRC insertion) as well as bits relating to the information packets#2 and #5 (stored in the storage unit 702 d) whose packet numbers arepacket numbers of erroneous information packets. Here, the bits relatingto the information packets are bits punctured (not transmitted) at thetime of the transmission of the information packets #2 and #5 at thephysical layer.

The receiver 35 receives the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion) as well as data of bits relatingto the information packets #2 and #5 (coded at the physical layer afterthe CRC insertion). The receiver 35 performs, on the data 346 stored inthe storage unit 315 and the reception data 333 relating to theinformation packets #2 and #5, decoding processing at the physical layerwith use of the physical layer decoding unit 304 c, and the errordetection processing with use of the error detection unit 305. Thereceiver 35 also performs, on the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion), the decoding processing withuse of the physical layer decoding unit 304 c, and the error detectionprocessing with use of the error detection unit 305. Then, the receiver35 obtains the information packets by performing the packet decodingprocessing on the information packets having no error and the paritypackets having no error, with use of the packet decoding unit 310.

According to the present embodiment, even when the packet error occursin the receiver 35, it is possible to greatly reduce the possibilitythat the receiver 35 makes a retransmission request, by performing boththe retransmission with use of the parity packets and the retransmissionat the physical layer. Note that the number of parity packets to beretransmitted (the coding rate of the codes in the coding unit 152) maybe changed in accordance with the number of erroneous packets, asdescribed in the second and third embodiments.

Note that it is possible to combine the retransmission method describedin the fifth embodiment (combination of the retransmission with use ofthe parity packets and the retransmission at the physical layer) and theretransmission method described in the first to third embodiments(retransmission method of performing retransmission with use of theparity packets). In this case, the number of erroneous informationpackets is important. Therefore, it is preferable that the transmitterselects a retransmission method from among the retransmission methoddescribed in the fifth embodiment and the retransmission methodsdescribed in the first to third embodiments in accordance with thenumber of erroneous information packets. When the number of erroneousinformation packets is large, it is preferable to select theretransmission method described in the fifth embodiment in order toreduce the possibility of packet error occurrence after theretransmission. When the number of erroneous information packets issmall, on the other hand, it is preferable to select the retransmissionmethod described in the first to third embodiments. It is natural thatwhen the number of erroneous information packets is small, it ispossible to select a conventional retransmission method (Incrementalredundancy) of transmitting bits punctured (not transmitted) at the timeof initial transmission of the erroneous packets at the physical layer(shown in Non Patent Literature 1) (FIG. 27). Note that selectionmethods and criteria for selecting the retransmission method describedin the fifth embodiment and the retransmission methods described in thefirst to third embodiments are not limited to the above-stated methodsand criteria. Also, the method of performing retransmission at thephysical layer may be switched to the retransmission method described inthe fourth embodiment.

Sixth Embodiment

The following describes a sixth embodiment of the present invention withreference to drawings. The present embodiment relates to a method ofconfiguring packets to be retransmitted in a communication apparatus ona transmitting side (transmitter).

<Method of Configuring Packets to be Retransmitted>

FIG. 20 shows an example of a frame structure at the time ofretransmission in the transmitter of the present embodiment. Note thatthe transmitter has structures shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The transmitter 16 transmits the information packets #1 to #n (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion). In this case, suppose thatthe data amount of each of the information packets #1 to #n before theCRC insertion is 128 bytes, for example.

Then, the transmitter 16 transmits the parity packets #1 to #m (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion), when it is presumed that acommunication apparatus 36 on a receiving side (receiver 36) has made aretransmission request. In this case, the transmitter 16 generates theparity packets such that a size of one parity packet before the CRCinsertion is smaller than a size of one information packet before theCRC insertion in order to maintain reception quality at the time ofretransmission. For example, the data amount of one parity packet beforethe CRC insertion is 64 bytes.

It is possible to reduce the number of bits (to be eliminated) of theretransmission data by making the size of each of the parity packets #1to #m before the CRC insertion smaller than the size of each of theinformation packets #1 to #n before the CRC insertion as described inthe above. Thus, it is possible to obtain an effect that the packeterror is highly likely to be prevented at the time of firstretransmission.

Note that the above-stated data amount of one information packet and thedata amount of one parity packet are merely examples. Therefore, anydata amount is possible as long as the data amount of one parity packetis smaller than the data amount of one information packet.

Also, the present embodiment can be combined with any of the otherembodiments. For example, it is possible to adopt the method oftransmitting (retransmitting) the parity packets or the method of makingthe number of bits composing the parity packets smaller than the numberof bits composing the information packets. Also, in a case where theparity packets are transmitted (retransmitted) a plurality of times, amethod may be adopted of decreasing the number of bits composing theparity packets as the number of retransmissions increases.

Seventh Embodiment

The following describes a seventh embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to drawings. The present embodiment relates to a methodof configuring packets to be retransmitted in a communication apparatuson a transmitting side (transmitter) when the parity packets areretransmitted a plurality of times. Note that the same referencenumerals are provided to elements of the present embodiment that are thesame as the elements of the first embodiment. Since the descriptionsthereof can be applied to the elements of the present embodiment, thedescriptions are omitted or are kept brief.

<Transmitter>

The transmitter of the present embodiment includes a packet data codingunit 102 f having different functions from the functions of the packetdata coding unit 102 of the transmitter 11 of the first embodiment, andthe transmission method determination unit 109 outputs the controlsignal 141 including the retransmission number information showing howmany times the retransmission has been performed. The followingdescribes the packet data coding unit 102 f.

FIG. 21 is a structural diagram of the packet generation unit 101 andthe packet data coding unit 102 f of the transmitter. The followingdescribes how the packet data coding unit 102 f is different from thepacket data coding unit 102 shown in FIG. 2. The packet data coding unit102 f has a coding unit 152 f instead of the coding unit 152. The packetdata coding unit 102 f does not have the storage unit 154 between theerror detection code insertion unit 153 and a selection unit 156 f.Instead, the packet data coding unit 102 f has a storage unit 154 fbetween the coding unit 152 f and the error detection code insertionunit 153. The reasons for these is to decrease the size of one paritypacket each time the transmitter of the present embodiment performsretransmission with use of the parity packet, in a case where thetransmitter performs retransmission a plurality of times.

The coding unit 152 f receives the interleaved data 171 and the controlsignal 141 as inputs. The coding unit 152 f generates parities by codingthe interleaved data 171 based on the coding rate of codes or the codingmethod, for example, shown by the control signal 141, and outputs thegenerated parities 172 f to the storage unit 154 f.

The storage unit 154 f receives the parities 172 f as inputs and storestherein the parities 172. The storage unit 154 f receives the controlsignal 141 as an input. When the control signal 141 indicatestransmission of the retransmission data, the storage unit 154 fgenerates parity packets with use of the parities based on theretransmission number information shown by the control signal 141 suchthat the size of one parity packet decreases as the number ofretransmissions increases. The storage unit 154 f outputs the generatedparity packets 172 to the error detection code insertion unit 153. Here,the size of one parity packet before the CRC insertion at the time ofthe first retransmission should be equal to or larger than the size ofthe one information packet before the CRC, for example.

<Method of Configuring Packets to be Retransmitted>

FIG. 22 shows a concrete example of a frame structure at the time ofretransmission in a communication apparatus on a transmitting side(transmitter) in the present embodiment.

The following describes the concrete example.

A transmitter 17 transmits the information packets #1 to #n (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion). In this case, suppose thatthe amount of data composing each of the information packets #1 to #nbefore the CRC insertion is 128 bytes, for example.

Then, the transmitter 17 generates parity packets with use of theparities stored in the storage unit 154 f of the packet data coding unit102 f, and transmits the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at the physicallayer after the CRC insertion), when it is presumed that a communicationapparatus 37 on a receiving side (receiver 37) has made a retransmissionrequest. In this case, the size of one parity packet before the CRCinsertion at the time of initial transmission should be 128 bytes whichis equal to the size of one information packet before the CRC.

Then, the transmitter 17 generates parity packets with use of theparities stored in the storage unit 154 f of the packet data coding unit102, and transmits the parity packets #1 to #h (coded at the physicallayer after the CRC insertion), when it is presumed that the receiver 37has made a retransmission request. In this case, it is important thatthe size of one parity packet before the CRC insertion at the time ofthe second retransmission is smaller than the size of one parity packetbefore the CRC insertion at the time of the first retransmission. Thesize of one parity packet before the CRC insertion at the time of thesecond retransmission is 64 bytes, for example, that is smaller than thesize of one parity packet before the CRC insertion at the time of thefirst retransmission.

The following describes another concrete example.

The transmitter 17 transmits the information packets #1 to #n (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion). In this case, suppose thatthe amount of data composing each of the information packets #1 to #nbefore the CRC insertion is 128 bytes, for example.

Then, the transmitter 17 transmits the parity packets #1 to #m (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion), when it is presumed thatthe receiver 37 has made a retransmission request. In this case, thesize of one parity packet before the CRC insertion at the time of thefirst retransmission is 64 bytes that is smaller than the size of oneinformation packet before the CRC insertion.

Then, the transmitter 17 retransmits the parity packets (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion), when it is presumed that thereceiver 37 has made a retransmission request. In this case, it isimportant that the size of one parity packet before the CRC insertion atthe time of the second retransmission is smaller than the size of oneparity packet before the CRC insertion at the time of the firstretransmission. The size of one parity packet before the CRC insertionat the time of the second retransmission is 32 bytes, for example, thatis smaller than the size of one parity packet before the CRC insertionat the time of the first retransmission.

Note that the above-stated data amount of one information packet and thedata amount of one parity packet at the time of each of the first andsecond retransmissions are merely examples. Therefore, any data amountis possible as long as the data amount of one parity packet at the timeof the second retransmission is smaller than the data amount of oneparity packet at the time of the first retransmission.

Thus, the number of bits (to be eliminated) of the transmission data canbe reduced by making the size of one packet smaller as the number ofretransmissions increases as described in the above. This improves thereception quality.

Eighth Embodiment

The following describes an eighth embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to drawings. The present embodiment relates to a methodof configuring packets to be retransmitted in a communication apparatuson a transmitting side (transmitter) in a case of alternately performingretransmission with use of the parity packets and retransmission withuse of the information packets. Note that the same reference numeralsare provided to elements of the present embodiment that aresubstantially the same as the elements of the first to seventhembodiments. Since the descriptions thereof can be applied to theelements of the present embodiment, the descriptions are omitted or arekept brief.

<Transmitter>

A transmitter of the present embodiment has a packet data coding unit102 g having different functions from the functions of the packet datacoding unit 102 f of the transmitter of the seventh embodiment. Thetransmission method determination unit 109 outputs the control signal141 including retransmission number information showing how many timesthe retransmission has been performed, as described in the seventhembodiment. The following describes the packet data coding unit 102 g.

FIG. 23 is a structural diagram of the packet generation unit 101 andthe packet data coding unit 102 g in the transmitter. The followingshows how the packet data coding unit 102 g is different from the packetdata coding unit 102 f shown in FIG. 21. The packet data coding unit 102g has a selection unit 156 g instead of the selection unit 156, andfurther includes a storage unit 161 and a selection unit 162. The reasonfor these is to retransmit the information packets at a layer at whichsignal processing is performed earlier than at the physical layer (e.g.application layer) in the transmitter of the present invention. Notethat when the control signal 141 indicates transmission of theretransmission data and the retransmission number shown by theretransmission number information of the control signal 141 is an oddnumber, the storage unit 154 f outputs the parity packets 172.

The storage unit 161 receives the information packets 132 as inputs. Thestorage unit 161 receives the control signal 141 as an input. In a casewhere: the control signal 141 indicates transmission of theretransmission data; and the retransmission number shown by theretransmission number information of the control signal 141 is an evennumber, the storage unit 161 reconfigures the stored information packetsso that the size of one information packet decreases as theretransmission number increases, and outputs information packets 132 g.

The selection unit 162 receives the information packets 132, theinformation packets 132 g and the control signal 141 as inputs. When thecontrol signal 141 does not indicate transmission of the retransmissiondata, the selection unit 162 selects and outputs the information packet132 to the error detection code insertion unit 155 as the informationpacket 132G. In a case where: the control signal 141 indicatestransmission of the retransmission data; and the retransmission numbershown by the retransmission number information of the control signal 141is an even number, on the other hand, the selection unit 162 selects andoutputs the information packets 132 g to the error detection codeinsertion unit 155 as the information packet 132G.

The selection unit 156 g receives, as inputs, the information packets175 after the CRC insertion, the parity packets 173 after the CRCinsertion and the control signal 141. In a case where (1) the controlsignal 141 does not indicate transmission of the retransmission data or(2): the control signal 141 indicates transmission of the retransmissiondata; and the retransmission number shown by the retransmission numberinformation of the control signal 141 is an even number, the selectionunit 156 g selects and outputs the information packets 175 after the CRCinsertion. In a case where: the control signal 141 indicatestransmission of the retransmission data; and the retransmission numbershown by the retransmission number information of the control signal 141is an odd number, on the other hand, the selection unit 156 g selectsand outputs the parity packets 173 after the CRC insertion.

<Method of Configuring Packets to be Retransmitted>

FIG. 24 shows an example of a frame structure at the time ofretransmission in a communication apparatus on a transmitting side(transmitter) in the present embodiment.

The following describes the concrete example.

A transmitter 18 transmits the information packets (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion). In this case, suppose that theamount of data composing each of the information packets #1 to #n beforethe CRC insertion is 128 bytes, for example.

Then, the transmitter 18 transmits the parity packets #1 to #m (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion), when it is presumed that acommunication apparatus 38 on a receiving side (receiver 38) has made aretransmission request. In this case, the size of one parity packetbefore the CRC insertion should be 128 bytes which is equal to the sizeof one information packet before the CRC insertion at the time of theinitial transmission.

The transmitter 18 transmits information packets #1 to #k (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion) with use of the informationpackets stored in the storage unit 161 of the packet data coding unit102 g, when it is presumed that the receiver 38 has made theretransmission request. In this case, it is important that the size ofone information packet before the CRC insertion at the time of thesecond retransmission is smaller than the size of one information packetbefore the CRC insertion at the time of the initial transmission. Thus,the size of one information packet before the CRC insertion at the timeof the second retransmission is 64 bytes, for example, which is smallerthan the size of one information packet before the CRC insertion at thetime of the initial transmission.

The following describes another concrete example.

The transmitter 18 transmits the information packets #1 to #n (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion). In this case, suppose thatthe amount of data composing each of the information packets #1 to #nbefore the CRC insertion is 128 bytes, for example.

Then, the transmitter 18 transmits the parity packets #1 to #m (coded atthe physical layer after the CRC insertion), when it is presumed thatthe receiver 38 has made a retransmission request. In this case, thesize of one parity packet before the CRC insertion should be 64 byteswhich is smaller than the size of one information packet before the CRCinsertion at the time of the initial transmission.

The transmitter 18 transmits information packets #1 to #k (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion) with use of the informationpackets stored in the storage unit 161 of the packet data coding unit102 g, when it is presumed that the receiver 38 has made theretransmission request. In this case, it is important that the size ofone information packet before the CRC insertion at the time of thesecond retransmission is smaller than the size of one information packetbefore the CRC insertion at the time of the initial transmission. Thus,the size of one information packet before the CRC insertion at the timeof the second retransmission is, for example, 64 bytes which is smallerthan the size of one information packet before the CRC insertion at thetime of the initial transmission.

Note that the above-stated data amount of one information packet at thetime of the initial transmission, and the data amount of one paritypacket at the time of each of the initial and second retransmissions aremerely examples. Therefore, any data amount is possible as long as thedata amount of one information packet at the time of the secondretransmission is smaller than the data amount of one information packetat the time of the initial transmission.

Thus, the number of bits (to be eliminated) of the transmission data canbe reduced by making the size of one packet to be retransmitted smalleras described in the above. This improves the reception quality.

Ninth Embodiment

The following describes a ninth embodiment of the present invention withreference to drawings. The present embodiment relates to a method forselecting a retransmission method.

<Method for Selecting Retransmission Method>

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing an example of how to select aretransmission method pertaining to the present embodiment.

In order to reduce processing delay, for example, the transmissionmethod determination unit may make setting, in view of a state ofcontrol processing such as the processing delay and a calculation size,such that the ARQ (Automatic repeat-request) is not changed. When theprocessing delay is not likely to occur or transmission efficiency isdesired to be increased, on the other hand, the ARQ is changed.Therefore, the transmission method determination unit makes a selectionas to whether the ARQ is changed or not (Step S101). When the ARQ is notchanged as a result of the selection (S101: NO), the transmission methoddetermination unit selects one of: the retransmission at the physicallayer; the retransmission with use of the parity packet; and acombination of these retransmissions, as the retransmission method to beexecuted at the time of retransmission (Step S102).

When the ARQ is changed as a result of the selection (S101: YES), thetransmission method determination unit judges whether or notcommunication to be performed is the multicast communication (StepS103). When the judgment is negative (S103: NO), the transmission methoddetermination unit selects the retransmission with use of the physicallayer as the retransmission method to be executed at the time of theretransmission (S104). When the judgment is positive (S103: YES), on theother hand, processing proceeds to Step S105. Note that it is possibleto select, at this time, the retransmission with use of the paritypackets as the retransmission method to be executed at the time of theretransmission.

The transmission method determination unit judges whether or not todetermine the retransmission method in view of the state of controlprocessing such as the processing delay and a calculation size (StepS105). When determining the retransmission method (S105: YES), thetransmission method determination unit selects the retransmission withuse of the parity packets as the retransmission method to be executed atthe time of the retransmission (Step S106). When not determining theretransmission method (S105: NO), the transmission method determinationunit judges whether or not the number of packets to be transmitted isequal to or greater than a threshold value (Step S107).

When the number of packets to be transmitted is smaller than thethreshold value (S107:NO), the transmission method determination unitselects the retransmission at the physical layer as the retransmissionmethod to be executed at the time of the retransmission (Step S108).This is because when the number of bits to be transmitted is small, theamount of retransmission data itself is small. Therefore, improvement ofthe transmission efficiency of data is small even if the retransmissionwith use of the parity packets is adopted. When the number of bits to betransmitted is equal to or greater than the threshold value (S107: YES),processing proceeds to Step S109. Note that it is possible to select, atthis time, the retransmission with use of the parity packets as theretransmission method to be executed at the time of the retransmission.

The transmission method determination unit judges whether or not todetermine the retransmission method in view of the state of controlprocessing such as the processing delay and the calculation size (StepS109). When determining the retransmission method (S109: YES), thetransmission method determination unit selects the retransmission withuse of the parity packets as the retransmission method to be executed atthe time of the retransmission (Step S110). When not determining theretransmission method (S109: NO), the transmission method determinationunit judges whether or not the number of erroneous packets to betransmitted is equal to or greater than a threshold value (Step S111).

When the number of erroneous packets is equal to or smaller than thethreshold value (S111: YES), the transmission method determination unitselects the retransmission with use of the parity packets (Step S112).When the number of erroneous packets is equal to or greater than thethreshold value (S111: NO), on the other hand, the transmission methoddetermination unit selects the combination of the retransmission at thephysical layer and the retransmission with use of the parity packets asthe retransmission method to be executed at the time of theretransmission (Step S113).

As described in the above, there is a merit that it is possible torealize both the improvement of the data reception quality and theimprovement of the data transmission efficiency, by selecting one of (1)the retransmission at the physical layer, (2) the retransmission withuse of the parity packets and (3) the combination of theseretransmissions. Note that criterion for selecting the retransmissionmethod to be executed at the time of the retransmission is not limitedto the method shown in FIG. 25. Although the example is given of thecase where one of the retransmission methods is selected in the above,it is possible to make a selection that the retransmission is notperformed.

Also, when the retransmission is performed in the multicastcommunication mode as shown in FIG. 12, the transmitter initiallytransmits the same information packets to each of a plurality ofreceivers. The transmitter receives, form each of the receivers, thefeedback information including the information relating to the packeterror occurrence. In this case, there are two possible patterns.

A case <1> is a case where the number of erroneous information packetsin each of the receivers A, B and C is close to one another as shown inthe following. For example, the number of erroneous information packetsin a receiver A, the number of erroneous information packets in areceiver B and the number of erroneous information packets in a receiverC are three, two and three, respectively.

A case <2> is a case where the number of erroneous information packetsin each of the receivers is not close to one another as shown in thefollowing. For example, the number of erroneous information packets inthe receiver A, the number of erroneous information packets in thereceiver B, the number of erroneous information packets in the receiverC and the number of erroneous information packets D are three, three,three and five, respectively.

In the case <1>, the number of parity packets to be transmitted can beeasily calculated at the time of the retransmission. Thus, selection ofthe retransmission with use of the parity packets is highly likely to beprioritized (see FIG. 14 and the description for the same for theexplanations on the number of parity packets to be retransmitted).However, when the number of erroneous information packets is large inall of the receivers, it is highly likely to combine the retransmissionat the physical layer and the retransmission with use of the paritypackets.

In the case <2>, the receiver having the large number of erroneousinformation packets is specified. In the above case <2>, the receiverhaving the large number of erroneous information packets is the receiverD. Then, the transmitter extracts the erroneous information packets atthe receiver D, generates, for the extracted information packets, theretransmission data to be retransmitted at the physical layer, andretransmits the generated retransmission data. However, it is notnecessary to retransmit all the erroneous information packets at thephysical layer. Thus, since it is assumed that the number of erroneousinformation packets in each of the receivers is identical, thetransmitter transmits four or more parity packets. Thus, it is highlylikely that the packet error does not occur at the time of theretransmission in all the receivers. It is presumed in the above casethat the number of bits composing the information packets and the numberof bits composing the parity packets are identical.

In a case where: the number of terminals is large; and a terminal existsthat has the outstandingly large number of erroneous packets, thetransmitter may exceptionally perform, at the physical layer, theretransmission to the terminal with use of the information packets asdescribed in the case <2>. However, when the number of terminals islarge, it is difficult to dynamically select a terminal to which theexceptional retransmission is performed. Therefore, it is preferable toprovide a threshold value for the number of erroneous packets, and toretransmit, at the physical layer, the information packets to theterminals in each of which the number of packet error is larger than thethreshold value. However, when the number of terminals (in each of whichthe number of packet errors is larger than the threshold value) islarge, the retransmission at the physical layer needs to be performedfor all the information packets in some cases. In this case, since thedata transmission efficiency decreases as the parity packets aretransmitted, the transmitter does not have to transmit the paritypackets. In order to make sure that the packets are transmitted to allthe terminals at once without an error, the parity packets may betransmitted. This selection depends on request condition of acommunication system.

The following describes one example with reference to FIG. 26. Supposethat the transmitter transmits the information packets #1 to #7 and thatthree information packets, three information packets, three informationpackets and five information packets are missing in the receivers A, B,C and D, respectively. That is, suppose that the number of missinginformation packets in the receiver D is larger than the number ofmissing information packets in each of the receivers A, B and C. Supposealso that the number of bits composing the information packets and thenumber of bits composing the parity packets are identical. In this case,when the number of parity packets to be retransmitted is determined inaccordance with the same rules as the rules described in FIG. 14, it isnecessary to determine the number of parity packets to be retransmittedbased on the receiver D. In this case, it is necessary to retransmit sixor more parity packets. However, such number of parity packets is anamount of redundant retransmission data for each of the receivers A, Band C. In this case, it is possible to adopt the following method.According to the method, the number of parity packets to beretransmitted is four, and two information packets are transmitted tothe receiver D. In this case, it is possible to obtain a merit in termsof data transmission efficiency by using the hybrid ARQ at the physicallayer for the information packets to be transmitted to the receiver D.

As described in the above, it is possible to obtain especially an effectof reducing the number of retransmissions by adopting the retransmissionmethod of selecting one of: the retransmission at the physical layer;the retransmission with use of the parity packets; and the combinationof these transmissions. Therefore, it is possible to obtain an effect ofimproving the data transmission efficiency.

Tenth Embodiment

The following describes a tenth embodiment of the present invention withreference to drawings. The tenth embodiment describes details of thecoding method (coding method at a packet level) at a layer at whichsignal processing is performed earlier than at the physical layer.

FIG. 28 shows an example of coding methods at a layer at which signalprocessing is performed earlier than at the physical layer. In FIG. 28,the coding rate of the error correction codes is ⅔, and the size of dataof one packet (excluding control information and information on errordetection codes etc.) is 512 bits.

In FIG. 28, in the coding processing at a layer at which signalprocessing is performed earlier than at the physical layer (coding at apacket level), parities are generated by interleaving the informationpackets #1 to #8 and then coding the information packets #1 to #8. Someof generated parities that correspond to 512 bits compose a group as oneparity packet. Here, since the coding rate is ⅔, the number of paritypackets is four. That is, parity packets #1 to #4 are generated.Therefore, the information packets described in the other embodimentscorrespond to the information packets #1 to #8 in FIG. 28. The paritypackets correspond to the parity packets #1 to #4 in FIG. 29. Note thatthe size of the parity packet is 512 bits which is the same as the sizeof the information packet for simplifying the descriptions. However, oneparity packet does not have to have the same size as the size of theinformation packet.

FIG. 29 shows an example of coding methods at a layer at which signalprocessing is performed earlier than at the physical layer, which isdifferent from what is shown in FIG. 28. That is, the transmitter mayexecute the coding at a layer at which signal processing is performedearlier than at the physical layer with use of the coding method shownin FIG. 29 instead of the coding method shown in FIG. 28. In FIG. 29,the information packets #1 to #512 are original information packets. Asize of data of each of these information packets (excluding the controlinformation and information on the error detection code etc.) is 512bits. Then, each of the information packets #k (k=1, 2, . . . , 511 and512) is divided into eight to generate the sub information packets #k-1,#k-2, . . . , and #k-8.

Then, the generated sub information packets #1-n, #2-n, #3-n, . . . ,#511-n and #512-n (n=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8) are coded to form theparity group #n. Then, the parity group #n is divided into m as shown inFIG. 30 so as to form the parity packets #n-1, #n-2, . . . , and #n-m.

Therefore, when the coding is performed in accordance with the codingmethod shown in FIG. 29, the information packets described in the otherembodiments correspond to the information packets #1 to #512 shown inFIG. 29. The parity packets correspond to parity packets #n-1, #n-2, . .. , and #n-m (n=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8) shown in FIG. 30. In thiscase, although one information packet is 512 bits, one parity packetdoes not necessarily have to be 512 bits.

Also, the information packets described in the other embodimentscorrespond to the sub information packets #k-1, #k-2, . . . , and #k-8(k=1, 2, . . . , 511, and 512) shown in FIG. 29.

Note that each of the sub information packets obtained as a result ofthe division may be one packet in FIG. 29.

Also, as described in the other embodiments, the error correction codesare inserted into the information packets and the parity packets. Theerror correction coding is performed on the information packets and theparity packets at the physical layer.

Eleventh Embodiment

The following describes an eleventh embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to drawings. The eleventh embodiment describes details ofmulticast relay/retransmission method in a repeater.

FIG. 31 shows a relationship between a base station (or an accesspoint), repeaters and terminals in the present embodiment. As shown inFIG. 31, the base station transmits the same packet group 3400(hereinafter, referred to as packet group #A) to a plurality ofterminals. In this case, the base station either directly transmits thepacket group A to each of the terminals, or transmits the packet group#A to each of the terminals through the repeater.

According to an example shown in FIG. 31, a base station 3100 transmitsthe packet group #A (3400) to each of a terminal 3300 a, a terminal 3300i, and a terminal 3300 j, a repeater 3200 a, a repeater 3200 b and arepeater 3200 c. Then, the repeater 3200 a, the repeater 3200 b and therepeater 3200 c respectively relay the received packet group #A (3400)to terminals 3300 b to 3300 e, terminals 3300 f to 3300 g and a terminal3300 h.

Note that the base station and the terminal respectively correspond tothe transmitter and the receiver described in the above embodiments.Also, the repeater is a device that includes the functions of both thetransmitters and the receivers described in the above embodiments, andfurther includes functions unique to the repeater. This applies to therest of after-mentioned embodiments.

FIG. 32 shows a configuration example of the packet group #A in the basestation when the base station transmits the packet group #A to theterminals through the repeater. Since the base station performs thetransmission in the multicast communication mode, the base stationperforms coding at a layer at which signal processing is performedearlier than at the physical layer (i.e. coding at a packet level).Thus, there is a merit that coding at a packet level is suitable for themulticast transmission. However, when the base station transmits thepacket group to the terminals through the repeaters, the repeaters makeretransmission requests to the base station if transmission error occursbetween the base station and the repeaters. However, when many repeatersexist, the number of retransmission requests increases. As a result, thedata transmission efficiency dramatically decreases. Therefore, it issuitable that the base station performs the coding at a packet levelbetween the base station and the repeaters.

As shown in FIG. 32, the base station (1) generates the parity packets#1 to #m by coding the information packets #1 to #n at a packet level,(2) inserts the error detection codes (e.g. CRC) into the informationpackets #1 to #n and the generated parity packets #1 to #m, and (3)generates the information packets #1 to #n (coded at the physical layerafter the CRC insertion) and the parity packets #1 to #m (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion) by performing the coding at thephysical layer. Then, the base station performs predeterminedtransmission processing on these packets and transmits the resultantpackets.

The repeater can switch a method of communicating with the terminals inaccordance with the number of terminals the repeaters communicate withand a data type, for example. However, the present embodiment especiallydescribes a case where the multicast retransmission method is adopted inwhich the repeaters retransmits data to a plurality of terminals. Notethat a fourteenth embodiment describes details of switching betweencommunication methods.

FIG. 33 shows an example of communication between the repeaters and theterminals in the present embodiment. Each of the repeaters receives theinformation packets and parity packets that are transmitted from thebase station. Each of the repeaters performs decoding at a packet levelto obtain the information packets, inserts the error detection codes(e.g. CRC) into each of the information packets, performs the coding atthe physical layer, and transmits the information packets #1 to #n(coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion) to each of theterminals. Here, a packet group to be transmitted is a packet group G1.

Here, it is recited that the repeaters initially transmit only theinformation packets to each of the terminals. The following describesthe reasons for this. It is possible to accurately perform transmissionto the terminals that are positioned far from the base station. Also, itis unlikely that the coding at a packet level needs to be adoptedbecause: a transmission distance is often shorter compared to a casewhere the base station directly communicates with the terminals; and acommunication quality between the repeaters and the terminals is high.

Then, each of the repeaters determines the number of parity packets tobe retransmitted and the transmission method, with use of a transmissionrequest and the feedback information that are received from one of theterminals #A, #B and #C. Then, each of the repeaters transmits theparity packets (coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion)(i.e. parity packets corresponding to the packet group G1) as packetsfor retransmission, as shown in FIG. 33. In this case, a method that isidentical to any of the methods described in the first embodiment, thesecond embodiment and the sixth embodiment can be executed.

An exemplary structure of the base station in the present embodiment isas shown in FIG. 1. Since FIG. 1 is described in the other embodiments,the details of the structure of the base station is omitted.

The packet data coding unit 102 h shown in FIG. 34 is different from thepacket data coding unit 102 shown in FIG. 2 in that the packet datacoding unit 102 h has a processing unit 3401. The base station performscoding at a packet level in the multicast communication mode asdescribed in the above. Examples of the communication are the multicastcommunication, the unicast communication and a mode in which the basestation communicates with the terminal without passing through therepeater. Therefore, the processing unit 3401 outputs the packets thatare suitable for each of the communication modes. Accordingly, there arecases; where the base station transmits only the information packets;where the base station transmits the information packets and the paritypackets; and where the base station transmits the information packetsand transmits the parity packets at the time of retransmission. Theprocessing unit 3401 outputs the packets 133 that are suitable for eachof the cases.

FIG. 35 is different from FIG. 34, and shows a structural example of thepacket data coding unit 102 of the base station shown in FIG. 1. Thesame references are given to elements that operate in the same manner asthe elements shown in FIG. 2. The packet data coding unit 102 i shown inFIG. 35 may be adopted instead of the packet data coding unit 102 hshown in FIG. 34. The following describes how a packet coding unit 102 ishown in FIG. 35 is different from the packet data coding unit 102 hshown in FIG. 34. The coding unit 102 i performs the coding at a layerat which signal processing is performed earlier than at the physicallayer (i.e. decoding at a packet level) without distinguishing betweenthe information packets and the parity packets to generate the packetscomposed of both the information pieces and parities. The coding unit152 shown in FIG. 35 receives the interleaved information 171 as aninput. The coding unit 152 codes the interleaved information 171, andoutputs the packets 172. In the example shown in FIG. 35, the codingunit 152 outputs the packets #1 to #h. Note that the coder may be acoder for systematic codes, or a coder for non-systematic codes. Thebase station performs the coding at a packet level in the multicastcommunication mode as described above. However, the base stationactually does not perform the coding in the multicast communication modein some cases. Therefore, when the coding at a packet level isnecessary, a selection unit 3501 selects and outputs the packets #1 to#h. When the coding at a packet level is not necessary, the selectionunit 3501 selects and outputs the information packets #1 to #n.

FIG. 36 shows an example of communication between the base station, therepeaters and the terminals in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG.36, the base station transmits the packet group #A including missingpackets composed of the information packets and the parity packets forthe multicast communication.

Each of the repeaters receives the packet group #A including missingpackets. The repeater decodes the packet group #A at a packet level,extracts the information packets and transmits the information packetsto a plurality of terminals.

A terminal #A receives the information packets transmitted by therepeater. When packet loss occurs, the terminal #A makes aretransmission request to the repeater, and transmits the feedbackinformation such as the number of lost packets and the numbers of thelost information packets. A terminal #B receives the information packetstransmitted by the repeaters. When packet loss occurs, the terminal #Bmakes retransmission requests to the repeaters, and transmits thefeedback information such as the number of lost packets and the numbersof the lost information packets.

The repeater determines the retransmission in accordance with thefeedback information of the terminals #A and #B, and transmits theparity packets of the packet group #A. Then, each of the terminalsdecodes the previously received information packets and the receivedparity packets at a packet level to obtain the information packets.

FIG. 37 shows an example of the structure of a repeater 3200A of thepresent embodiment. The repeater includes the substantially the samestructure as the structure of the receiver shown in the aboveembodiments. Therefore, the same reference numerals are provided withelements that operate in the same manner as the elements shown in FIG.4. When the base station 3200A transmits the packet group #A, thereception unit 302 extracts the control information (corresponding tosignal 332) transmitted together with the packet group #A. Thecommunication method identifying unit 303 receives the signal 332 as aninput. The communication method identifying unit 303 identifiesinformation on the communication method, and outputs communicationmethod information 334.

A packet separation unit 3701 receives, as inputs, the decoded packet341 and the communication method information 334. In the case of FIG.37, the packet separation unit 3701 judges that the base stationtransmits the packets that have been coded at a packet level, with useof the communication method information 334. Then, the packet separationunit 3701 separates the packet group #A of the decoded packets 341 intothe information packets and parity packets, and outputs informationpackets 3702 and parity packets 3903. Note that error detection codesmay be inserted into the information packets 3702 and parity packets3903 at this time. Since the error detection code insertion has beenperformed in the base station, the repeater 3200A can easily obtain theinformation packets and parity packets to which the error detectioncodes have been inserted.

A control information detection unit 3705 extracts, for example, thecontrol information included in data transmitted by the terminals. Thecontrol information detection unit 3705 recognizes whether or not theretransmission request is made and a situation of the packet lossoccurred in the terminals. Then, the control information detection unit3705 outputs a control signal 3706 relating to the transmission methodof retransmission and whether or not to perform the retransmission.Also, the control information detection unit 3705 extracts the controlinformation included in data transmitted by the base station. When theextracted control information indicates that the data is data for themulticast communication, the control information detection unit 3705outputs, as the control signal 3706, an instruction showing that therepeater 3200A should transmit the information packets.

The storage unit 3704 receives the parity packets 3903 and the controlsignal 3706 as inputs, and stores the parity packets 3903 in the storageunit 3704. When the control signal 3706 is information regardingretransmission to the terminals, the storage unit 3704 determines thenumber of parity packets to be outputted from among the stored paritypackets based on the information, and outputs the parity packets 3907 tobe retransmitted.

The selection unit 3708 receives, as inputs, the information packets3702, the parity packets 3907 to be retransmitted and the control signal3706. When the control signal 3706 indicates transmission of theinformation packets, the selection unit 3708 selects the informationpackets 3702 and outputs the selected packets 3702 as the packets 3709.Also, when the control signal 3706 indicates retransmission to theterminals, the selection unit 3708 selects the parity packets 3707 andoutputs the selected packets 3707 as the packets 3709.

The physical layer coding unit 3710 receives, as inputs, the packets3709 selected by the selection unit 3708. The physical layer coding unit3710 outputs data 3711 that has been coded at the physical layer.

A control signal generation unit 3712 receives the control signal 3706as an input. The control signal generation unit 3712 outputs the controlinformation 3713 including control information that needs to betransmitted to a communication apparatus (e.g. terminal). Examples ofinformation included in such control information are information onwhether or not data is retransmission data, information on the number ofretransmissions, information on a modulation method, information on thecoding method at a packet level and information on a method of coding atthe physical layer.

The modulation unit 3714 receives, as inputs, the data 3711 that hasbeen coded at the physical layer and the control information 3713. Themodulation unit 3714 performs modulation (mapping) such as PSK and QAM,and outputs a base band signal 3715.

A transmission unit 3716 receives the base band signal 3715 as an input.The transmission unit 3716 performs OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing) and/or processing such as spectral dispersion, frequencyconversion and amplification, and outputs the resultant transmissionsignal 3717 to an antenna 3718. The antenna 3718 outputs thetransmission signal 3717.

The structure of each of the terminals is the same as the structureshown in FIG. 4 described in the first embodiment, the second embodimentand the sixth embodiment. Therefore, since the operations of each of theterminals are described in the above embodiments, the descriptionsthereof are omitted.

FIG. 38 is different from FIG. 36, and shows an example of communicationamong the base station, the repeater and the terminals. Specifically,FIG. 38 shows an example of communication in a case where the basestation either “uses the systematic codes in performing coding at apacket level, and transmits the packets composed of both the informationpieces and parities” or “transmits packets that are coded with use ofnon-systematic codes at a packet level” described with use of FIG. 35.In this case, the base station does not clearly distinguish between theinformation packets and the parity packets. Therefore, it is difficultfor the packet separation unit 3701 to separate the packets as shown inFIG. 37. That is, the packet separation unit 3701 is unable to separatethe packets into the information packets and parity packets. Therefore,as shown in FIG. 39 which is a structural diagram of the repeater inthis case, the repeater 3200B includes a packet level coding unit 3901instead of the packet separation unit 3701 shown in FIG. 37.

As shown in FIG. 38, the repeater receives the packet group #Atransmitted by the base station, and restores packets of the missingpacket group #A by decoding the packet group #A at a packet level. Then,the repeater generates the information packets with use of the restoredpackets. Then, the repeater transmits the information packets to each ofthe plurality of terminals.

A terminal #A receives the information packets transmitted by therepeater. When packet loss occurs, the terminal #A makes aretransmission request to the repeater, and transmits the feedbackinformation including the number of lost packets and the numbers of thelost information packets, for example. Similarly, a terminal #B receivesthe information packets transmitted by the repeater. When packet lossoccurs, the terminal #B makes a retransmission request to the repeater,and transmits the feedback information including the number of lostpackets and the numbers of the lost information packets, for example.

In this case, when the terminals make retransmission requests (e.g. whenthe plurality of terminals make retransmission requests), the repeatertransmits the parity packets as the data to be retransmitted. Here, theretransmission with use of the parity packets has a merit regarding theretransmission method in the multicast communication mode. However, thiscase is different from the case shown in FIG. 36 in that the repeaterneeds to code the information packets at a packet level, and to generatethe parity packets.

Therefore, the repeater 3200B is different, as shown in FIG. 39, fromthe repeater 3200A shown in FIG. 37 as follows. The repeater 3200Breceives, as inputs, information packets, and the repeater 3200Bincludes a coding unit 3901 that performs the coding at a packet levelto output the information packets 3902 and the parity packets 3903. Notethat although the error detection coding unit is not depicted in FIG.37, the coding unit 3901 inserts the error detection codes into thepackets. Since elements shown in FIG. 39 are the same as the elementsshown in FIG. 37 except for the coding unit 3901, the descriptions ofthese elements are omitted.

As described in the above, when the repeater 3200B relay the packets forthe multicast communication (transmitted from the base station), therepeater 3200B generates the information packets and parity packets soas to enable the retransmission in the multicast communication mode.When the plurality of terminals make retransmission requests, therepeater 3200B transmits the parity packets. In such a way, it ispossible to improve the data transmission efficiency. Note that thepresent embodiment describes retransmission with use of the packets.However, when the repeater receives the retransmission requests from theterminals, the repeater may combine the retransmission with use of thepackets and the retransmission at the physical layer, as shown in FIGS.17 and 19.

Also, a description is given of the exemplary case where the basestation transmits, to the repeater, the packets that have been coded ata packet level. However, the present invention is not limited to thiscase. There may be a case where the repeater transmits the packets thathave not been coded at a packet level. In this case, when the packetloss occurs, the repeater makes a retransmission request to the basestation, and the base station retransmits the packets in accordance withthe retransmission request. Also, the repeater may have both of thestructures shown in FIG. 37 and FIG. 39.

Twelfth Embodiment

The following describes a twelfth embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to drawings. The twelfth embodiment describes a multicastrelay/retransmission method used in the repeater. Here, this method iscapable of shortening time of delay before the packets reach each of theterminals compared to the eleventh embodiment.

FIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and 40D show an example showing a structure ofpackets to be transmitted by the base station, the repeaters and theterminals in the present embodiment. FIG. 40A shows packets to betransmitted from the base station to the repeater (also referred to as adirect terminal). The base station performs the coding at a layer atwhich signal processing is performed earlier than at the physical layer(i.e. coding at a packet level). The base station transmits, to therepeater (also referred to as the direct terminal) information packets#1 to #100 (coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion) andparity packets #1 to #25 (coded at the physical layer after the CRCinsertion).

Then, the repeater receives the packets transmitted by the base station.As shown in FIG. 40B, suppose that: 20 packets (information packets #1,#5, #6, #8, #21, #29, #33, #34, #45, #47, #53, #57, #68, #79, #83 and#90, and parity packets #4, #8, #9 and #24) cannot be obtained as aresult of decoding at the physical layer; these 20 packets are missingbefore the decoding at a packet level; and 105 packets excluding these20 packets are obtained, for example.

In this case, at first, the repeater transmits, to each of theterminals, 105 packets excluding 20 packets of 4001 shown in FIG. 40C.

When the terminals make retransmission requests, the repeater obtains 20packets (information packets #1, #5, #6, #8, #21, #29, #33, #34, #45,#47, #53, #57, #68, #79, #83 and #90, and parity packets #4, #8, #9 and#24 that are missing before the decoding at a packet level) shown inFIG. 40D as a result of the decoding at a packet level, and transmitsthese 20 packets as packets for retransmission. However, FIG. 40A, FIG.40B, FIG. 40C and FIG. 40D show the exemplary case where 20 packets(information packets #1, #5, #6, #8, #21, #29, #33, #34, #45, #47, #53,#57, #68, #79, #83 and #90, and parity packets #4, #8, #9 and #24) areretransmitted. However, the data transmission efficiency may beprioritized and, the repeater may select the number of packets that isless than 20 from among 20 packets and retransmits the selected packets.

The following is possible, for example. The repeater may select 15packets from among the above 20 packets at the time of the firstretransmission, and transmits the selected packets as the packets forretransmission. When the terminals make retransmission requests again,the repeater transmits five packets that have not been transmitted toeach of the terminals from among the above 20 packets, at the time ofthe second retransmission. In this case, the repeater may notify each ofthe terminals of the number of packets to be transmitted each time therepeater performs retransmission. The repeater performs the notificationby transmitting the number of packets as the control information, forexample.

As described in the above, the case shown in FIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and 40Dis characterized in that the repeater transmits, to each of theterminals, the packets obtained before the decoding at a packet levelfirst; and when the terminals make retransmission requests, the repeatertransmits restored packets obtained as a result of the decoding at apacket level. Note that a description is given later of an effect of themulticast relay/retransmission method used in the repeater as shown inFIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and 40D, with use of FIG. 42 and FIG. 43.

FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D are different from FIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and40D, and show an example showing a structure of packets to betransmitted by the base station, the repeaters and the terminals in thepresent embodiment. In an example shown below, the data size of oneinformation packet and the data size of one parity packet (excludingcontrol information and information on error detection codes) areidentical. FIG. 41A shows packets to be transmitted by the base stationto the repeater (also referred to as the direct terminal). The basestation performs the coding at a layer at which signal processing isperformed earlier than at the physical layer (i.e. coding at a packetlevel). The base station transmits, to the repeater (also referred to asthe direct terminal), information packets #1 to #100 (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion) and parity packets #1 to #25(coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion). This transmissionis performed in the same manner as the transmission shown in FIG. 40A.

Then, the repeater receives the packets transmitted by the base station.As shown in FIG. 41B, suppose that: ten packets (information packets #1,#6, #21, #34, #68, #79 and #90 and parity packets #4 and #24) aremissing; and that 115 packets excluding the above ten packets areobtained, for example.

In this case, the number of packets to be initially transmitted islimited in order to improve the data transmission efficiency. In thisexample, the data size of one information packet and the data size ofone parity packet (excluding control information and information onerror detection codes) are identical. Therefore, if 101 or more packets(composed of information packets and parity packets) are initiallytransmitted, each of the terminals can restore the information packetsby performing the decoding at a packet level. Therefore, the repeaterinitially transmits 110 packets in this case. Specifically, the repeaterselects 110 packets from among 115 packets obtained by the decoding atthe physical layer (e.g. 110 packets shown in FIG. 41C), and initiallytransmits, to each of the terminals, the selected 110 packets.

When the terminals make retransmission requests, the repeater transmits15 packets (e.g. 15 packets shown in FIG. 41D) excluding the packetsselected and initially transmitted, for example. Note that when therepeater retransmits the packets, the ten packets (information packets#1, #6, #21, #34, #68, #79 and #90 and parity packets #4 and #24) thatare missing before the decoding at a packet level are restored by thedecoding at a packet level. Therefore, the repeater may also retransmitthe packets that have been restored by the decoding at a packet level.

In the example shown in FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D, the repeaterinitially transmits 110 packets, and retransmits 15 packets that havenot been initially transmitted. However, the data transmission speed maybe prioritized, and the repeater may select, from among 15 packets, thenumber of packets that is smaller than 15 packets and retransmits theselected packets.

The following example is possible. The repeater selects ten packets fromamong 15 packets that have not been initially transmitted and transmitsthe selected packets at the time of the first retransmission. When theterminals make retransmission requests again, the repeater selects fivepackets that have not been transmitted to the terminals, and retransmitsthe selected five packets at the time of the second retransmission.

As described in the above, the example shown in FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and41D is characterized in that: the repeater transmits a predeterminednumber of packets to each of the terminals from among the packetsobtained before the decoding at a packet level; and when terminals makeretransmission requests, the repeater selects packets to beretransmitted from among the restored packets obtained as a result ofthe decoding at a packet level and the packets that have not beeninitially transmitted, and transmits the selected packets. Note that adescription is given later of an effect of the multicastrelay/retransmission method used in the repeater as shown in FIGS. 41A,41B, 41C and 41D, with use of FIG. 42 and FIG. 43.

It is natural that the number of packets to be initially transmitted isnot limited to 110 packets in FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D. Therefore,the number of packets to be initially transmitted may be any number aslong as the number is enough to restore the information packets by thedecoding at a packet level in each of the terminals. Also, the repeatermay change the number (the number of packets to be initiallyretransmitted) as time lapses. For example, the repeater may recognize acommunication state with each of the terminals with use of the feedbackinformation obtained from the terminal, and changes the number ofpackets to be initially transmitted in accordance with the state.Specifically, when the communication state is judged to be well, thenumber of packets to be initially transmitted is reduced. When thecommunication state is judged to be not well, the number of packets tobe initially transmitted is increased. The state of the communicationstate is judged in accordance with reception strength and a packet errorrate in each of the terminals, for example. Note that it is preferablethat the repeater notifies the terminals of the numbers of packets to betransmitted each time the repeater performs transmission in this case.That is, the repeater preferably transmits the number of packets thathave been transmitted, as control information.

Also, in the example described with use of FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D,the data size of one information packet and the data size of one paritypacket (excluding control information and information on the errordetection codes, for example) are identical. However, it is possible toexecute the above operations even if the data size of one informationpacket and the data size of one parity packet are different. However, itis necessary that the amount of information the repeater needs toinitially transmit is set such that a total number of bits composinginformation packets and parity packets to be initially transmitted islarger than X bits. Here, X bits is the number of all information bitscomposing actual data that is obtained after each of the terminalsreceives and decodes the packets.

For example, when the number of bits composing one information packet(excluding information other than information such as controlinformation) is 512 bits in FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D, the numbers ofbits to be transmitted to the terminals are each 51200 bits (512 (thenumber of bits composing one packet)×100 (number of informationpackets)). Therefore, the repeater should initially transmit the numberof information packets and parity packets so that the number of bitscomposing all the information packets and parity packets is larger than51200 bits.

The following describes the effects of the relay method and themulticast relay method used in the repeater (described with use of FIGS.40A, 40B, 40C and 40D and FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D), with use of FIG.42 and FIG. 43.

FIG. 42 is a conceptual diagram showing one brief example of signalprocessing timing in a time axis at the time of the relaying and themulticast retransmission described in the eleventh embodiment. As shownin FIG. 42, the repeater performs the decoding at the physical layer,error detection and the decoding at a packet level in the state order.Subsequently, the repeater performs the initial transmission to each ofthe terminals. Then, when the terminals make retransmission requests,the repeater performs the retransmission to the terminal.

FIG. 43 is a conceptual diagram showing one brief example of signalprocessing timing in a time axis at the time of the relaying and themulticast retransmission described in the present embodiment. FIG. 43 isdifferent from FIG. 42 in that the repeater performs, in FIG. 43, theinitial transmission to each of the terminals without the decoding at apacket level. That is, in the example shown in FIG. 43, the repeaterstarts the decoding at a packet level in FIG. 42 with timing that therepeater starts the initial transmission. Then, the repeater can performthe decoding at a packet level and generate packets to be retransmittedwhile performing the initial transmission to each of the terminals.

Therefore, it is possible to shorten time of delay before the packetsreach each of the terminals compared to the eleventh embodiment with themulticast relay/retransmission method used in the repeater of thepresent embodiment.

FIG. 44 shows an exemplary operation in the repeater. The repeaterreceives the packets transmitted by the base station, and judges whetheror not the number of missing packets before the decoding at a packetlevel is equal to or less than the threshold value. This is becausesince the number of bits (or the number of packets) necessary forrestoring the packets by the decoding at a packet level is known asdescribed in the above, it is possible to judge whether or not it isworthwhile to perform the decoding at a packet level. When the number ofmissing packets is not equal to or less than the threshold value, therepeater makes a retransmission request to the base station. When thenumber of missing packets is equal to or less than the threshold value,processing proceeds to a next step.

Subsequently, the repeater checks whether or not the time of delaybefore the packets reach each of the terminals should be prioritized.When the time of delay before the packets reach each of the terminals isnot prioritized, the repeater selects the relay method or theretransmission method described in the eleventh embodiment, for example.When the time of delay before the packets reach each of the terminals isprioritized, the processing proceeds to a next step.

Next, the repeater checks whether or not data transfer speed is to beprioritized. When the data transfer speed is not prioritized, therepeater selects the relay method and the retransmission method shown inFIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and 40D. When the data transfer speed isprioritized, the repeater selects the relay method and theretransmission method shown in FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D.

Each of the relay methods and the retransmission methods may be a fixedmethod. However, it is possible to switch among the relay methods andthe retransmission methods in accordance with the state as shown in FIG.44.

The following describes the operations of each of the elements composingthe repeater with use of FIG. 45 and FIG. 46.

FIG. 45 shows an example of the structure of a repeater 3200C that usesthe relay and multicast retransmission method shown in FIGS. 40A, 40B,40C and 40D. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given to theelements that operate in the same manner as the elements shown in FIG.37. The following describes differences in operations between FIG. 45and FIG. 37.

In FIG. 45, it is possible to recognize packets having no errors afterthe decoding at the physical layer with use of the error detectionresult and the packet data 336. Also, the error detection unit 305outputs a control signal 4501 relating to the numbers of the erroneouspackets.

The storage unit 3704 receives, as inputs, the packets 341 obtained bythe decoding at a packet level and a control signal 4501. The storageunit 3704 extracts the packets that have been restored by the decodingat a packet level and stores the decoded packets therein. Also, thestorage unit 3704 receives a control signal 3706 as an input. When thecontrol signal 3706 is information relating to the retransmission toeach of the terminals, the storage unit 3704 selects the number ofpackets to be outputted from among the stored packets based on suchinformation, and outputs the packets 3707 to be retransmitted.

The selection unit 3708 receives, as inputs, the error detection result,the packet data 336, the packets 3707 to be retransmitted and thecontrol signal 3706. When the control signal 3706 indicates the initialtransmission to the terminal, the selection unit 3708 selects the errordetection result and the packet data 336, and outputs the selectedpackets 3709. The packet data 336 is packets having no error after thedecoding at the physical layer. Then, the selection unit 3708 outputsthe packets 3707 to be retransmitted when the control signal 3706indicates retransmission to each of the terminals.

FIG. 46 shows an example of the structure of a repeater 3200D that usesthe relay and multicast retransmission method shown in FIGS. 41A, 41B,41C and 41D. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given to theelements that operate in the same manner as the elements shown in FIG.37. The following describes differences between FIG. 46 and FIG. 37.

In FIG. 46, it is possible to recognize packets having no errors by thedecoding at the physical layer with use of the error detection resultand the packet data 336.

A distribution unit 4601 receives, as inputs, the result of the errordetection and the packet data 336. The distribution unit 4601 outputsthe number of packets to be initially transmitted from among the packetshaving no error (after the decoding at the physical layer) as packets4602 to be initially transmitted, and outputs the rest of the packets4603 as packets for retransmission. Also, the distribution unit 4601outputs the control signal 4604 relating to the information of thedistributed packets.

The storage unit 3704 receives, as inputs, the packets 341 obtained bythe decoding at a packet level, the packets 3707 to be retransmitted andthe control signal 4604. The storage unit 3704 extracts the packets thathave been restored by the decoding at a packet level and stores thereinthe decoded packets together with the packets 3707 to be retransmitted.Also, the storage unit 3704 receives the control signal 3706 as aninput. When the control signal 3706 is information relating to theretransmission to each of the terminals, the storage unit 3704 selectsthe number of packets to be outputted from among the stored packetsbased on such information, and outputs the packets 3707 to beretransmitted.

The selection unit 3708 receives, as inputs, initial transmissionpackets 4602, the packets 3707 to be retransmitted and the controlsignals 3706. When the control signal 3706 indicates the initialtransmission to each of the terminals, the selection unit 3708 selectsthe packets 3707 to be retransmitted and outputs the selected packets3709. Then, the selection unit 3708 outputs the packet 3707 to beretransmitted when the control signal 3706 indicates retransmission toeach of the terminals.

FIGS. 47A, 47B, 47C and 47D and 48A, 48B, 48C and 48D are different fromFIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and 41D and 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D, and show anexample showing a structure of packets to be transmitted by the basestation, the repeaters and the terminals in the present embodiment. Inan example shown below, the data size of one information packet and thedata size of one packet (excluding control information and informationon error detection codes) are identical. The following describes howFIGS. 47A, 47B, 47C and 47D and 48A, 48B, 48C and 48D are greatlydifferent from FIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and 41D and 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D. InFIGS. 40A, 40B, 40C and 41D and 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D, the informationpackets and the parity packets are distinguished. In FIGS. 47A, 47B, 47Cand 47D and 48A, 48B, 48C and 48D, on the other hand, the informationpackets and the parity packets are not distinguished. Therefore, whenthe systematic codes are used in the coding at a packet level in FIGS.47A, 47B, 47C and 47D and 48A, 48B, 48C and 48D, the packets arecomposed of information pieces and parities. Note that the codes used inthe coding at a packet level may be non-systematic codes.

FIG. 47A shows packets to be transmitted by the base station to therepeater (also referred to as the direct terminal). The base stationperforms the coding at a layer at which signal processing is performedearlier than at the physical layer (i.e. coding at a packet level). Thebase station codes information packets #1 to #100 (coded at the physicallayer after the CRC insertion) to generate parity packets #101 to #125.Then, the base station transmits the packets #1 to #125 to the repeater(also referred to as the direct terminal).

Then, the repeater receives the packets transmitted by the base station.As shown in FIG. 47B, suppose that: 20 packets (packets #1, #5, #6, #8,#21, #29, #33, #34, #45, #47, #53, #57, #68, #79, #83, #90, #104, #108,#109 and #124) cannot be obtained as a result of the coding at thephysical layer; these 20 packets are missing before the coding at apacket level; and 105 packets excluding the above 20 packets areobtained, for example.

In this case, the repeater transmits, to each of the terminals, 105packets (shown in FIG. 47C) excluding 20 packets of 4701 shown in FIG.40B.

When the terminals make retransmission requests, the repeater obtains 20packets (packets #1, #5, #6, #8, #21, #29, #33, #34, #45, #47, #53, #57,#68, #79, #83, #90, #104, #108, #109 and #124 that are missing beforethe decoding at a packet level) by the decoding at a packet level, andretransmits these 20 packets (shown in FIG. 47B). However, FIG. 47A,FIG. 47B, FIG. 47C and FIG. 47D show the exemplary case where 20 packets(packets #1, #5, #6, #8, #21, #29, #33, #34, #45, #47, #53, #57, #68,#79, #83 and #90, #104, #108, #109 and #124) are retransmitted. However,the data transmission efficiency may be prioritized, and the repeatermay select the number of packets that is less than 20 from among 20packets, and retransmits the selected packets.

The following is possible, for example. The repeater may select 15packets from among the above 20 packets at the time of the firstretransmission, and transmits the selected packets as the packets forretransmission. When the terminals make retransmission requests again,the repeater transmits five packets that have not been transmitted toeach of the terminals from among the above 20 packets, at the time ofthe second retransmission. In this case, the repeater may notify each ofthe terminals of the number of packets to be transmitted each time therepeater performs retransmission. The repeater performs the notificationby transmitting the number of packets as the control information, forexample.

As described in the above, the case shown in FIGS. 47A, 47B, 47C and 47Dis characterized in that the repeater transmits, to each of theterminals, the packets obtained before the decoding at a packet levelfirst; and when the terminals make retransmission requests, the repeatertransmits restored packets obtained as a result of the decoding at apacket level.

FIGS. 48A, 48B, 48C and 48D show an example showing a structure ofpackets to be transmitted by the base station, the repeaters and theterminals in the present embodiment. In an example shown below, the datasize of one information packet and the data size of one packet(excluding control information and information on error detection codes)are identical.

FIG. 48A shows packets to be transmitted by the base station to therepeater (also referred to as the direct terminal). The base stationperforms the coding at a layer at which signal processing is performedearlier than at the physical layer (i.e. coding at a packet level). Thebase station codes information packets #1 to #100 (coded at the physicallayer after the CRC insertion) to generate packets #101 to #125. Then,the base station transmits the packets #1 to #125 to the repeater (alsoreferred to as the direct terminal).

Then, the repeater receives the packets transmitted by the base station.As shown in FIG. 48B, suppose that: 10 packets (packets #1, #6, #21,#29, #34, #68, #79, #90, #104 and #124) cannot be obtained as a resultof the coding at the physical layer; these 10 packets are missing beforethe coding at a packet level; and 115 packets excluding the above 10packets are obtained, for example.

In this case, the number of packets to be initially transmitted islimited in order to improve the data transmission efficiency. In thisexample, the data size of one information packet and the data size ofone packet (excluding control information and information on errordetection codes) are identical. Therefore, if 101 or more packets areinitially transmitted, each of the terminals receives 101 or morepackets without losing any of the packets. Therefore, each of theterminals can restore the information packets by the decoding at apacket level. Therefore, the repeater initially transmits 110 packetsand selects 110 packets from among 115 packets obtained as a result ofthe decoding at the physical layer. Then, the repeater initiallytransmits the selected 110 packets shown in FIG. 48C to each of theterminals.

When the terminals make retransmission requests, the repeater transmits15 packets excluding the initially-transmitted packets, for example.Note that 10 packets (packets #1, #6, #21, #29, #34, #68, #79, #90, #104and #124 that are missing before the decoding at a packet level) arerestored by the decoding at a packet level.

In the case shown in FIGS. 48A, 48B, 48C and 48D, the repeater initiallytransmits 110 packets and retransmits 15 packets that have not beeninitially transmitted. However, the data transmission speed may beprioritized, and the repeater may select, from among 15 packets, thenumber of packets that is smaller than 15 packets, and retransmits theselected packets.

The following is possible, for example. The repeater may select 10packets from among 15 packets that have not been initially transmitted,and transmits the selected packets as the packets at the time of thefirst retransmission. When the terminals make retransmission requestsagain, the repeater transmits five packets that have not beentransmitted to each of the terminals, at the time of the secondtransmission.

As described in the above, the case shown in 48A, 48B, 48C and 48D ischaracterized in that: the repeater transmits, to each of the terminals,a predetermined number of packets from among packets obtained before thedecoding at a packet level first; and when the terminals makeretransmission requests, the repeater selects packets to be transmittedfrom among the restored packets obtained by the decoding at a packetlevel and packets that have not been initially transmitted, andtransmits the selected packets.

Note that when the relay and multicast retransmission method as shown inFIGS. 47A, 47B, 47C and 47D or 48A, 48B, 48C and 48D is used, operationsof the repeaters can be performed with use of the repeaters shown inFIG. 45 and FIG. 46.

When the repeater relays packets for the multicast communication thatare transmitted by the base station, the repeater initially transmitsthe packets having no error at the physical layer as shown in the above.The repeater retransmits the packets that are obtained as a result ofthe decoding at a packet level. In this way, it is possible to improvethe data transmission efficiency and to shorten time taken for thepackets to reach each of the terminals. Note that the present embodimentdescribes retransmission with use of the packets. However, when therepeater receives the retransmission request from each of the terminals,the repeater may combine the retransmission with use of the packets andthe retransmission at the physical layer, as shown in FIG. 17 and FIG.19.

Also, a description is given of the exemplary case where the basestation transmits, to the repeater, the packets that have been coded ata packet level. However, the present invention is not limited to thiscase. There may be a case where the repeater transmits the packets thathave not been coded at a packet level. In this case, when the packetloss occurs, the repeater makes a retransmission request to the basestation, and the base station retransmits the packets in accordance withthe retransmission request.

Also, it is described in FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D and FIGS. 48A, 48B,48C and 48D that 110 packets selected by the repeater as packets to beinitially transmitted are first 110 packets from among packets having noerror. However, the packets can be selected in accordance with anycriteria. Therefore, the packets may be selected completely randomly ormay be selected in order of the decoding at the physical layer, forexample.

Thirteenth Embodiment

The following describes a thirteenth embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to drawings. The eleventh and twelfth embodimentsdescribe the examples of the multicast retransmission in the repeater.However, the present embodiment describes how the repeater switches thetransmission method including the retransmission method as shown in FIG.32. The repeater switches the transmission method based communicationenvironment such as the type of data and the number of terminals towhich the repeater relay the packets (i.e. terminals to which thepackets are simultaneously transmitted).

FIGS. 49A and 49B each show an example of the frame structure of asignal transmitted by the base station. FIG. 49A shows an example of theframe structure of the signal transmitted by the base station when therepeater determines the transmission method, and FIG. 49B shows anexample of the frame structure of the signal transmitted by the basestation when the base station determines, for the repeater, thetransmission method.

In FIG. 49A, information 4901 is information relating to the type ofdata, and including information showing whether the packets to betransmitted are for packets for the multicast communication.

Information 4902 is information relating to need for real-timeprocessing, and is used for indicating whether or not the packets to betransmitted to each of the terminals need to be processed in real time.

Information 4903 is relay number information that shows the number oftimes the repeater transmits the received packets.

Information 4904 is information relating to a relay/transmissioninterval and is for setting the number of times the repeater transmitsthe same packets. Note that the fourteenth embodiment describes how touse the information 4903 and the information 4904.

The information 4904 onwards each show the packets (coded at thephysical layer after the CRC insertion) that are transmitted by the basestation. The base station transmits the packets #1 to #n. Note that theinformation packets and the parity packets may be distinguished or notdistinguished.

In FIG. 49B, information 4905 is indication information of the relaymethod in the repeater, and is used by the base station for indicating,to the repeater, the relay method. The information 4905 onwards eachshow the packets (coded at the physical layer after the CRC insertion)that are transmitted by the base station, as with FIG. 49A.

FIG. 50 shows how the repeater that receives the signal transmitted bythe base station selects the transmission (relay) method. In FIG. 50,the repeater receives the signal transmitted by the base station shownin FIGS. 49A and 49B, and selects the transmission (relay) method. Asshown in FIG. 49B, when the base station indicates the transmission(relay) method, the repeater transmits the packets in accordance withthe indicated transmission method. As shown in FIG. 49A, when the basestation transmits the signal from the base station, the terminal, forexample, obtains the information pieces 4901 to 4904 transmitted by thebase station, and selects the transmission (relay) method based on theseinformation pieces. Then, the terminal transmits the packets inaccordance with an appropriate transmission method.

In FIG. 50, 5001 shows a case where the repeater receives the packetstransmitted by the base station under condition that no retransmissionis performed, and transmits the packets. Specifically, the base stationtransmits the packets that have been coded at a packet level, and therepeater receives the packets. Then, the repeater completes decoding ofthe packets at a packet level, and then transmits the information on thepackets transmitted by the base station. That is, the repeater transmitsthe packets that have been coded at a packet level. The case 5001 shownin FIG. 50 shows an exemplary case where the packets transmitted by thebase station and the packets to be transmitted by the repeater have thesame structure. The present invention is not limited to this case.Therefore, the packets transmitted by the base station and the packetsto be transmitted by the repeater may have a difference packet size.Also, some details of the case 5001 shown in FIG. 50 are omitted.Specifically, control information etc. is transmitted together with thepackets shown in the case 5001.

5002 shows a case where the repeater receives the packets transmitted bythe base station under condition that retransmission is to be performed,and transmits the packets. Specifically, the base station transmits thepackets that have been coded at a packet level, and the repeaterreceives the coded packets. The repeater initially transmits some of thereceived packets (instead of all of the received packets) as describedin the first, second, sixth, eleventh and twelfth embodiments. Therepeater receives, from each of the terminals, feedback informationrelating to the initial transmission. When the retransmission isnecessary, the repeater transmits packets for retransmission.

5003 shows a case where the repeater receives the packets transmitted bythe base station under condition that retransmission is to be performed,and transmits the packets. Specifically, the base station transmits thepackets that have been coded at a packet level, and the repeaterreceives the coded packets. The repeater performs the communicationmethod of the frame structure shown in FIG. 17 and FIG. 19 as describedin the fourth and fifth embodiments. In this case, the repeater receivesthe packets transmitted by the base station. The repeater initiallytransmits some of the received packets. Then, the repeater receives,from each of the terminals, the feedback information relating to theinitial transmission. Subsequently, the repeater performs theretransmission shown in FIG. 17 and FIG. 19.

Note that there may be a case where the base station does not performthe coding at a packet level. In that case, the repeater transmits asignal transmitted by the base station. The repeater transmits thepackets shown by the received signal.

FIG. 51 shows an example relating to how to select the relay(transmission) method in the repeater. First of all, when the repeaterrelays the packets transmitted by the base station, the repeater checkswhether or not the packets are for the multicast communication. When thepackets are not for the multicast communication, the repeater transmitsthe packets. Also, the repeater performs the retransmission at thephysical layer (e.g. Chase Combining and Hybrid ARQ) when the terminalsmake retransmission requests.

When the packets are packets for the multicast communication, therepeater subsequently checks whether or not the packets need to beprocessed in real time (whether or not real-time processing isnecessary). When the real-time processing is necessary, the repeaterdoes not respond to retransmission of the terminals, and transmits thepackets that have been coded at a packet level. Thus, the terminals canobtain the high reception quality as a result of the decoding at apacket level.

When the real-time processing is not necessary, the repeater checkswhether or not to perform the relay a plurality of times (i.e. whetheror not the packets are to be transmitted a plurality of times afterreceiving the packets transmitted by the base station). Then, when thepackets need to be transmitted a plurality of times, the repeater adoptsthe transmission method described in the fourteenth embodiment. Notethat since the transmission method is described in detail in thefourteenth embodiment, the descriptions thereof are omitted.

When the packets do not have to be transmitted a plurality of times, therepeater checks whether or not the data transfer speed is to beprioritized. When the data transfer speed is prioritized, the repeaterreceives the packets transmitted by the base station in thetransmission/retransmission method shown in FIGS. 41A, 41B, 41C and 41D.When the terminals make initial transmission/retransmission requests,the repeater adopts the transmission method as shown in FIGS. 41A, 41B,41C and 41D.

When the data transfer speed is not prioritized, the repeater receivesthe packets transmitted by the base station first, and transmits packetsto be initially transmitted from among the received packets. Next, therepeater checks the number of terminals that have made theretransmission request. Then, when the number of retransmission requestsis large, the repeater performs the retransmission shown in FIGS. 40A,40B, 40C and 40D. When the number of retransmission requests is small,the repeater performs the retransmission shown in FIGS. 17 and 19.

FIG. 52 shows an example of the structure of part of the functions of arepeater E. In FIG. 52, the same reference numerals are given toelements that operate in the same manner as the elements shown in FIG.4.

When receiving a signal transmitted by the base station, a controlinformation detection unit 5201 extracts control information included inthe signal transmitted by the base station, and outputs controlinformation 5202.

A relay method determination unit 5203 receives the control information5202 as an input. The relay method determination unit 5203 determinesthe relay method (initial transmission method) and/or the retransmissionmethod, and outputs a determining method signal 5204.

When receiving a signal transmitted by each of the terminals, thecontrol information detection unit 5201 extracts control informationincluded in the signal transmitted by the terminal, and outputs controlinformation 5202.

The relay method determination unit 5203 receives the controlinformation 5202 as an input. The relay method determination unit 5203detects whether or not the terminals have made the retransmissionrequests. When the terminal has made the retransmission request, therelay method determination unit 5203 determines the retransmissionmethod, and outputs the determined method signal 5204.

When receiving the signal transmitted by the base station, a packetgeneration unit 5205 receives, as inputs, the determined method signal5204 and the decoded packets 341 in any of the cases: where the packetgeneration unit 5205 receives the signal transmitted by each of the basestation; and where the packet generation unit 5205 receives the signaltransmitted by each of the terminals. The packet generation unit 5205generates the packets 5206 for the transmission/retransmission method inaccordance with the determined method signal 5204, and outputs thegenerated packets. Then, the repeater performs predetermined processingon the packets 5206 for the transmission/retransmission method, andtransmits, to each of the terminals, the signal corresponding to thetransmission/retransmission packets 5206.

As described in the above, the repeater switches the transmission methodincluding the retransmission method in accordance with the communicationenvironment such as the type of data and the number of terminals towhich the packets are simultaneously relayed. This makes it possible toimprove both the data transfer speed and the packet reception quality ineach of the terminals.

Here, a description is given of the exemplary case where the basestation transmits, to the repeater, the packets that have been coded ata packet level. However, the present invention is not limited to thiscase. Therefore, there may be a case where the repeater transmits thepackets that have not been coded at a packet level. In this case, whenthe packet loss occurs, the repeater makes a retransmission request tothe base station, and the base station retransmits the packets inaccordance with the retransmission request.

Fourteenth Embodiment

The following describes a fourteenth embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to drawings. The fourteenth embodiment describes themethod of transmitting the same packets a plurality of times, asdescribed in the thirteenth embodiment.

FIGS. 53A and 53B each show an example of a change in the network.Suppose that the base station, the repeater and the terminals are in astate A at a certain time point. After time lapses, the base station,the repeaters and the terminals change to fall in a state B. In thisstate B, the terminal 5300 newly joins the network.

FIG. 54 shows an example of a transmission state of the packets in therepeater on the time axis. Suppose that the base station indicates, tothe repeater, to relay the packets for the multicast communication (thatdo not need to be transmitted to each of the terminals in real time), asshown in FIG. 49A. The packets are collectively referred to as a packetgroup #a.

As shown in changes from the state shown in FIG. 53A to the state shownin the state 53B, it is necessary to accurately transmit the packets toeach of the terminals that joins the network partway through theretransmissions, in some cases. Normally, a communication mode is notdiscussed in which certain packets are transmitted to each of aplurality of terminals, and then retransmitted to each of the terminals.However, when apparatuses are controlled, for example, there is apossible case where the packets indicated by the control information aretransmitted to the apparatuses. In this case, information on the controlpackets are not transmitted to each of the apparatuses, and theseapparatuses are not controlled any more. It is necessary to introduce atransmission mode that is configured in view of such a case.

In FIG. 54, the base station, the repeaters and the terminals are in thestate A shown in FIG. 53A at a time T1. In this case, the base stationtransmits the packet group #a that needs to be transmitted (relayed) aplurality of times, and each of the repeaters transmits the packet group#a.

Then, the base station, the repeaters and the terminals change to fallin the state B shown in FIG. 53B at a time T2. The repeater transmitsthe packet group #a for the second time at a time T3. In this case, therepeater does not transmit the packet group #a which is a new packetgroup received from the base station at the time T1. The repeatertransmits the packet group #a according to setting that the packet group#a is to be transmitted a plurality of times. Thus, the packet group #ais transmitted to the terminal 5003 that newly joins the network shownin the state B in FIG. 53B at the time T2.

Note that FIG. 49A shows a frame structure in which the base stationsets the number of relays and the relay/transmission interval. When sucha setting is not made, the repeater transmits the packet group #aindefinitely. This setting is necessary to prevent such a situation.

FIG. 55 is an example showing a structure of the repeater of the presentembodiment. The same reference numerals are given to elements thatoperate in the same manner as the elements shown in FIG. 46.

A storage unit 5501 receives, as inputs, the result of the errordetection, the packet data 336, the decoded packets 341 and thecommunication method information 334. When the communication methodinformation 334 shown by a signal transmitted by the base station to therepeater indicates the transmission method of performing transmission aplurality of times, the storage unit 5501 stores therein the errordetection results, the data 336 and the decoded packets 341. Then, thestorage unit 5501 outputs packets 5502 a predetermined number of times,at the transmission interval, based on the information included in thecommunication (reception) method information 334. Here, the informationrelates to a transmission interval and the number of transmissions

When the inputted packets 5502 need to be transmitted, the selectionunit 3708 outputs the packets 3709 as the packets 5502.

FIG. 56 shows an example of transmission timing of the transmissionpackets in each of the base station and the repeater. This example isdifferent from the example shown in FIG. 54. Suppose that, in FIG. 56, apacket group #a is a packet group that needs to be transmitted by therepeater a plurality of times and a packet group #b is a packet groupneeds to be processed in real time (i.e. time of delay before thesepackets reach each of the terminals needs to be shortened). Also, apacket group a is transmitted a plurality of times at a time interval α.

At this time, a transmission time T6 (at which the packet group #ashould be transmitted) is reached while the repeater is transmitting thepacket group b (between time points T5 to T7). In such a case, however,the repeater prioritizes transmission of the packet group that needs tobe processed in real time. The repeater does not permit interrupt oftransmission of the packet group that needs to be transmitted aplurality of times (i.e. the packet group that does not have to beprocessed in real time). Therefore, an important role of the repeater isto prioritize the transmission of the packets that need to be processedin real time.

As described in the above, the repeater can accurately transmit thepackets to each of the terminals that join the network partway throughthe retransmissions by transmitting (relaying) the packets transmittedby the base station a plurality of times.

Here, a description is given of the exemplary case where the basestation transmits, to the repeater, the packets that have been coded ata packet level. However, the present invention is not necessarilylimited to this case. Therefore, there may be a case where the repeatertransmits the packets that have not been coded at a packet level. Inthis case, when the packet loss occurs, the repeater makes aretransmission request to the base station, and the base stationretransmits the packets in accordance with the retransmission request.

Fifteenth Embodiment

The following describes a fifteenth embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to drawings. The fifteenth embodiment describes anothermethod (that is different from the method described in the fourteenthembodiment) as to how the repeater transmits the same packets aplurality of times.

FIG. 57 shows the transmission (relay) method described in thefourteenth embodiment. Suppose that both the packet group #a and thepacket group #b are transmitted by the base station, and both of thesepacket groups are packet groups to be transmitted by the repeater aplurality of times. FIG. 57 shows the above-stated state. After the basestation transmits the packet group #a (time T1), the repeater transmitsthe packet group #a a plurality of times (e.g. time T2 and time T3).Similarly, after the base station transmits the packet group #b, therepeater transmits the packet group #b a plurality of times (e.g. timepoints T5 and T7).

FIG. 58 shows a transmission (relay) method that is different from FIG.57. Both the packet groups #a and #b are transmitted by the base station(at time T1 and time T4), and both of these packet groups are packetgroups to be transmitted by the repeater a plurality of times. FIG. 58is different from FIG. 57 in that the groups #a and #b are coded at apacket level and a packet group #a+b is transmitted, at a time point(time T5) at which both the packet groups #a and #b are to betransmitted, in FIG. 58. The following describes a method formanufacturing the packet group #a+b, with use of FIG. 59.

FIG. 59 shows a method of generating the packet group #a+b as describedin the above. As described in the above, both the packet groups #a and#b need to be transmitted by the repeater a plurality of times.

The repeater receives the packet group #a that has been coded at apacket level and transmitted by the base station. At this time, therepeater has not received the packet group #b. Therefore, the repeatertransmits the packet #a at first (at the time T2 in FIG. 58). Then, therepeater receives the packet group #b that has been coded at a packetlevel and transmitted by the base station. In that case, the repeaterextracts an information packet group (hereinafter, referred to as aninformation packet group of the packet group #a) from the packet group#a, as shown in FIG. 59. Here, the information packet group is includedin the packet #a obtained by the decoding at a packet level. Similarly,the repeater extracts an information packet group (hereinafter, referredto as an information packet group of the packet group #b) from thepacket group #b. Here, the information packet group is included in thepacket group #b obtained by the decoding at a packet level.

Then, the repeater codes the information packet group of the packet #aand the information packet group of the group #b at a packet level togenerate the packet group a+b. Note that it is natural that the codesused for the coding may be systematic codes or non-systematic codes asdescribed in the above so far. In the subsequent processing, therepeater transmits the packet group #a+b to each of the terminals. Notethat when the repeater receives another new packet group #c from thebase station, the repeater generates a packet group #a+b+c obtained bycoding an information packet group at a packet level. The informationpacket group is obtained by combining the information packet groups #a,#b and #c.

When the packet groups #a and #b are short packets, padding bits areinserted into each of the packet groups #a and #b or control informationpieces (or packets for controlling) are provided to each of the packetgroups #a and #b in addition to the information packets, so as tosupport short packets. When the packet groups #a and #b are combinedsuch that #a+b, there is a merit that these additional informationpieces can be reduced. Thus, the information transfer efficiency can beimproved. Also, when the size of the block codes are increased with useof the block codes as the error correction codes for coding that areused for generating the packet group #a+b, the error correctionperformance is improved. Therefore, there is a merit that the datareception quality in each of the terminals is improved.

Here, a description is given of the exemplary case where the basestation transmits, to the repeater, the packets that have been coded ata packet level. However, the present invention is not necessarilylimited to this case. Therefore, there may be a case where the repeatertransmits the packets that have not been coded, and then the repeatergenerates the packet group a+b. In this case, when the packet lossoccurs, the repeater makes a retransmission request to the base station,and the base station retransmits the packets in accordance with theretransmission request.

As described in the above, the repeater can accurately transmit thepackets to each of the terminals that join the network partway, bytransmitting (relaying) the packets (transmitted by the base station) aplurality of times at a packet level. Also, the repeater codesaltogether the packets (that need to be transmitted a plurality oftimes) a plurality of times. This makes it possible to obtain meritsthat the data transfer efficiency and the data reception quality can beimproved.

It is natural that although the present embodiment is effective whenused alone, the repeater may switch between the method described in thepresent embodiment and the other transmission (relay) methods. The othertransmission (relay) methods are as described in the other embodimentsexcept for the present embodiment.

Supplementary Remarks

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and maybe implemented in any forms as long as the object/aims of the presentinvention, as well as other relevant and accompanying objects/aims, canbe achieved. The following cases are also possible, for example.

(1) Although the above-described exemplary embodiments are mainlyrealized by the coding apparatus and the transmitter, the presentinvention is not limited to this. Therefore, the present invention maybe applied to a power line communication apparatus, for example.

(2) The following is possible. Procedures of the operations in thetransmitter described in each of the above embodiments are written in aprogram. This program is pre-stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory). A CPU(Central Processing Unit) reads and executes the program stored in theROM. Also, the following is possible. The program in which theprocedures of the operations of each of the transmitters are written isstored on a computer readable storage medium. The program stored on thecomputer readable storage medium is stored in a RAM (Random AccessMemory). The CPU of the computer reads and executes the program storedin the RAM.

(3) The elements described in each of the above-described embodimentsmay be realized as an LSI (Large Scale Integration) which is typicallyan integrated circuit. These elements may be constituted as separatechips, or all or a portion thereof may be constituted as a single chip.

Note that an integrated circuit generated as described above may also bereferred to as an IC (Integrated Circuit), a system LSI, a super LSI, oran ultra LSI, depending on the degree of integration.

The integration is also not limited to LSI implementation, but insteadmay be realized by a dedicated circuit or a general-purpose process. AFPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) that can be reprogrammed after LSImanufacture, or a reconfigurable processor in which the connection andsettings of circuit cells in the LSI can be restructured after LSImanufacture can also be used.

Furthermore, if integration technology is developed that replaces LSIsdue to progressive or derivative semiconductor technology, integrationof functional blocks using this technology is naturally possible. Forexample, the application of biotechnology is a possibility.

(4) It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to awireless communication, and is effective for PLC (Power LineCommunication), visible light communication and optical communication.

(5) It is needless to say that the frame structures described in theabove sixth to eighth embodiments can be applied to the first to fifthembodiments by making appropriate changes.

(6) The above embodiments are described with use of terms (physicallayer and application layer). However, these terms are merelydefinitions and may be referred to as other names.

(7) The error correction codes at the physical layer are generallyreferred to as “FEC (Forward Error Correction) scheme”.

(8) In the above twelfth to fifteenth embodiments, the repeater relays,to each of the terminals, the packets received from the base station.However, the repeater may relay the packets to another repeater otherthan the terminals.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention is effective in generating retransmission packetswith use of LDPC Codes (Low Density Parity Check Codes), for example.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

-   -   100 transmitter    -   102 packet data coding unit    -   103 physical layer error correction coding unit    -   104 transmission method determination unit    -   151 interleaving unit    -   152 coding unit (parity packet generation unit)    -   153 error detection code insertion unit    -   154 storage unit    -   155 error detection code insertion unit    -   156 selection unit    -   300 receiver    -   304 physical layer decoding unit    -   305 error detection unit    -   306 feedback information generation unit    -   309 storage unit    -   310 packet decoding unit    -   3200, 3200A to 3200E repeater    -   3401, 3501 processing unit    -   3701 packet separation unit    -   3704 storage unit    -   3705 control information detection unit    -   3708 selection unit    -   3710 physical layer coding unit    -   3712 control information generation unit    -   3714 modulation unit    -   3716 transmission unit    -   3901 coding unit    -   4601 distributer    -   5201 control information detection unit    -   5203 relay method determination unit    -   5205 packet generation unit

What is claimed is:
 1. A transmission method executed by a transmittingapparatus to transmit a content to a plurality of terminals, wherein thecontent has transmission count information indicating a number of timesthe content is to be transmitted by the transmitting apparatus, thetransmission method comprising: a first transmission step of generatingand transmitting a first transmission signal which transfers at least afirst portion of a plurality of data packets including a plurality ofcontent packets, storing data of the content therein, and a plurality ofparity packets, generated from the content packets, and a secondtransmission step of, when the transmission count information of thecontent indicates a plurality of times, generating a second transmissionsignal including at least a second portion of the plurality of datapackets, and transmitting the second transmission signal during a periodwhich differs from a period during which the first transmission signalis transmitted.
 2. A reception method for receiving a content which aretransmitted to a plurality of terminals by a transmitting apparatus,wherein the content has transmission count information indicating anumber of times the content is to be transmitted by the transmittingapparatus, the reception method comprising: a reception step of, whenthe transmission count information of the content indicates a pluralityof times, receiving at least one of a first transmission signal and asecond transmission signal which are transmitted by the transmittingapparatus during different periods, the first transmission signaltransferring at least a first portion of a plurality of data packetsincluding a plurality of content packets, storing data of the contenttherein, and a plurality of parity packets, generated from the contentpackets, and the second transmission signal transferring at least asecond portion of the plurality of data packets, and a retransmissionrequest step of judging whether the content packets are restorable byperforming error correction processing using data packets which arereceived without error from the at least one of the first transmissionsignal and the second transmission signal, and when judging that thecontent packets are not restorable, identifying data packets which arerequired in order to restore the content packets and requestingretransmission of the data packets which are identified.
 3. Atransmitting apparatus for transmitting a content to a plurality ofterminals, wherein the content has transmission count informationindicating a number of times the content is to be transmitted by thetransmitting apparatus, the transmitting apparatus comprising, atransmitting unit configured to: generate and transmit a firsttransmission signal which transfers at least a first portion of aplurality of data packets including a plurality of content packets,storing data of the content therein, and a plurality of parity packets,generated from the content packets, and generate a second transmissionsignal including at least a second portion of the plurality of datapackets when the transmission count information of the content indicatesa plurality of times, and transmit the second transmission signal duringa period which differs from a period during which the first transmissionsignal is transmitted.
 4. A reception apparatus for receiving a contentwhich are transmitted to a plurality of terminals by a transmittingapparatus, wherein the content has transmission count informationindicating a number of times the content is to be transmitted by thetransmitting apparatus, the reception apparatus comprising: a receptionunit configured to, when the transmission count information of thecontent indicates a plurality of times, receive at least one of a firsttransmission signal and a second transmission which are transmitted bythe transmitting apparatus during different periods, the firsttransmission signal transferring at least a first portion of a pluralityof data packets including a plurality of content packets, storing dataof the content therein, and a plurality of parity packets, generatedfrom the content packets, and the second transmission signaltransferring at least a second portion of the plurality of data packets,and a retransmission unit configured to judge whether the contentpackets are restorable by performing error correction processing usingdata packets which are received without error from the at least one ofthe first transmission signal and the second transmission signal, andwhen judging that the content packets are not restorable, identify datapackets which are required in order to restore the content packets andrequest retransmission of the data packets which are identified.